Raghu Interview

Rude & responsible
Raghu Ram gets talking about his onscreen persona...
MANDVI SHARMA Times News Network

Your onscreen character is a craze among youngsters. Why do you think it is so?

I have often heard words like ‘idol’ and ‘icon’ being used for me. I don’t know if I really am one. My life hasn’t changed, in fact, I have started working even more. I try to work as hard as I can and at the end of the day I get a cheque for it all. But personally, things have changed a bit. I am from Delhi and there are some places I used to hang out at – Munirka, Vasant Vihar and JNU. Now, I have to wear a mask when I go there. So, all this attention is actually inconvenient for me. People think I am rude, but I think they act rude when they come up to me in the middle of my work and say, ‘Hey man, one photograph.’ or ‘Why are you so rude, man?’ and at that time all I want to tell them is that I am a bit busy. People say I should check my language because I have a responsibility. Well, if I have a responsibility then I will use more foul language. In fact, I will get violent when somebody will say something negative about women who wear skimpy clothes.

I would say that they are missing the forest and only focusing on the tree. It’s like after the Mangalore pub attack, politicians talking about pub culture when they should have been debating safety of women.

Why do you intimidate people so much? Is it how the show is supposed to work?
I don’t intimidate them, they get intimidated. I am not going to change because I am not here to win a popularity contest and neither am I here to make a career in films. I don’t want people to like me and I am not here to please everybody.


Why have you never spoken about your wife Sugandha?
There is a lot of negativity associated with me. I get death threats and people abuse me. I don’t want the same to happen to people who are related to me.

Tell us, how did you two meet?
Sugandha and I used live in the same locality in Delhi. But that’s not where we met. I was a part of the production team for a show on which she was the host. That’s
where we got to know each other.

And what did you think of her acting in the movie, Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na?
I loved the movie and also liked the way she portrayed her character, Shalini. If I wasn’t married to her, I would have asked her out after watching the film. Shalini is my type of girl – a little wild but sorted. And that is how Sugandha is in real life as well.

Are you sorted as well?
I am trying to not be so wild because I am getting older and I have to start acting my age. Though, I need a degree of wildness to create something extraordinary.

Apart from the show, what else have you been upto?
I wrote a couple of songs for Bollywood, like the title track for EMI. And there are some more songs that are being recorded. So, I would say that I want to be a musician.