Rajpal Yadav, the actor with a political purpose

He tells what prompted him to launch a political party and how he intends to juggle acting, politics

Rather in sync with the political climate in India, actor Rajpal Yadav uses a cattle metaphor to explain his recent foray into public affairs. “A farmer usually has two bulls working, while a third one circles the area. My party is like that third bull, we have just been watching and learning so far.” The character artist, who enjoyed popularity in Hindi cinema as a bumbling comic figure in the early 2000s, is referring to the Sarv Sambhaav Party that he floated last year, ahead of the Uttar Pradesh elections. 

The performance in that contest, which Yadav now describes as a “practice” event, was less than remarkable. There was confusion, he says, and many of his 70-odd candidates had their papers cancelled. “We did not participate to win. This was only our “admission” process.” The 45-year-old from Shahjahanpur often employs such analogies to answer questions. Two of his five brothers, Shripal and Rajesh, handle party administration, while Yadav goes by the title “international star campaigner”. The party symbol is a set of four tyres — which it sees as essential to the vehicle of progress. 

Yadav is the only actor in a family of mostly agriculturalists. He says they can be counted among the top five farmers in the Bareilly region, with fields of wheat and sugarcane. In high school, he took part in the assembly elections campaign of a local candidate. It raised his interest in politics, which he deems second only to his enthusiasm for acting.

While in college in Shahjahanpur, he had been training to work with Ordnance Factories, which makes defence equipment. “It was a coveted job. A lot of my friends still work there.” But his father’s dream to see him bag government employment was not to be. Yadav became smitten with theatre instead, after the veteran actor Vibha Mishra visited his town and cast him as lead in the play Andher Nagri Chaupat Raja. “I got so much applause. I decided that day I would enter show business chahe taali mile ya gaali (whether I get bouquets or brickbats).”

He speaks in Hindi, and his voice is booming even when addressing two people in a closed room. At times, for impact, he dramatically drops it to a whisper. The actor rarely needs prompting to launch into a monologue. “I can speak about my party’s vision for eight hours,” he says in his Goregaon home, a stone’s throw from Film City. This seems particularly ambitious after having just wrapped up a three-hour dubbing session for his next film, Judwaa 2.

But Yadav is used to being on stage for long. In theatre group in Lucknow, and later Delhi’s National School of Drama, he performed plays including Hamlet, Servant of two masters and Abu Hassan. 

In Hindi cinema, Yadav started out in 1999 with bit roles in Ram Gopal Varma’s Mast and Shool, before the director cast him in a meatier negative part in Jungle. His breakthrough roles came in Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hu (2003), where he played the earnest companion of a village girl who moves to the city with Bollywood dreams, and Main Meri Patni aur Woh (2005), in which he played a self-conscious man whose insecurities are stoked on marrying a more attractive woman. 

Movies continued with big and small parts, which he defines as “Test match” and “T20” innings respectively, until he decided to make his own film, Ata Pata Laapata. The 2012 release fared badly, leaving him unable to pay back loans and even landing him in jail for some days. His slowdown in recent years has been deliberate, he says. “I wanted to spend more time with the family.”

He is inspired by Charlie Chaplin but consciously avoids copying him. Character actors do not always have the best pickings in Hindi cinema. “I took whatever was offered to me, without questioning it. People said you will be typecast as a comic hero but then I landed negative roles. So, there is no theory in creativity.” This is in contrast to how he sees politics, as a methodical enterprise. According to Yadav, invitations to contest in elections had come as early as 2004 but he did not take them up. “To join some party would mean you have to praise them.”

Like many in the fields of politics and cinema, he feels misunderstood. 'No one knows Rajpal'

What ultimately convinced him to launch a party was hitting the 100-film mark around 2015. He had tasted the luxuries of “seven-star, business class, discotheques, pubs” and wanted to turn to what he calls “seva” (service). 

Like many in the fields of politics and cinema though, he feels misunderstood. “No one knows Rajpal.” Perhaps because of the clumsy characters he has essayed on screen, he believes “people don’t know that I am educated.” Yadav has a bachelor’s degree in political science, which he reckons gives him insight into public affairs of not just today but also of medieval and  renaissance periods.

It is apparent he is a spiritual man. His meeting room includes a shrine, complete with lamps and incense. He is an ardent follower of “Daddaji”, a godman from Madhya Pradesh, in whose Parthiv Shiv Ling-making ceremony he has participated as contributor and volunteer. He credits Ram and Krishna as having inspired his life and politics.

It was reported recently that Yadav’s party was among 16 Dalit, Muslim, and OBC groups that met in UP to discuss the removal of Mayawati as the leader of the Bahujans. Yadav maintains this was wrongly stated. “I respect every senior leader who has been working. I would never speak against anyone.” He says the meeting was meant for the sharing of ideas and future goals.

It is not clear what exactly Yadav hopes to achieve in UP. He leans back and then forward in a swivelling chair, naming various issues that need solving: road condition, Ram Mandir, equal rights regardless of caste and religion. The idea of “sabka saath sabka vikas” agrees with him, and he wants to align his agenda with it. Sarv Sambhaav Party, quite broadly, plans to have departments for every category of societal need. “I will work until my last breath to ensure that it becomes the best party in the country,” he declares, shooting one arm up in the air to signify a meteoric rise. This, in his estimation, will happen around 2024.

He wants eight-lane highways in cities and two-lane roads in the villages. He has set his eyes, among other problems, on rejuvenation of the Yamuna river and women’s empowerment. He is yet to take any steps in this direction but Yadav says he will devote 100 of the 365 days in a year to think about it. The rest of his days will be spent in cinema. He wants to remain visible and be taken seriously in both worlds. “After 40, actors’ careers take off in Hollywood. So I would say my best is yet to come.” 

It is a tightrope walk now, as he is careful to refuse work that might affect his real-life image, he says. “Someone approached me to play a father who obstructs his daughter’s progress.” Then in the unmistakable manner of some public figures, he refers to himself in the third-person. “But Rajpal would never do that.”