When 11 means Mystery!
Nonika Singh
After his killer dance moves, he has been killing it with his badass act in Kill. Dancer-actor Raghav Juyal, the ‘king of slow motion’, will now be seen in yet another Karan Johar-Guneet Monga production, Gyaarah Gyaarah. What other actors die for, he has achieved it twice over; Kill too was backed by these two bigwigs of the film industry!
Best of both cultures
Son of a Pahari-Garhwali father and a Punjabi mother, Raghav Juyal deems he has inherited the best of both cultures. His sense of humour sure is quintessentially Punjabi, and he picks up one trait typical of his Punjabi genes as fondness for Patiala peg! On a serious note, if progressive values and ambitious streak have been inherited from his mother, he has imbibed contentment from the paternal side of the family.
Yet another double association happens to be with Korea. If Kill had renowned South-Korean action-director Sea-Young Oh on board, Gyaarah Gyaarah happens to be a remake of the Korean drama Signal. If there is a karmic connection between Korea and the Dehradun-born lad, he laughs, “Korea is closer to Uttarakhand perhaps.”
Jokes apart, he is not exactly a fan of K-dramas as the rest of India is. But he is very much clued into world cinema, Korean films like Oscar-winning Parasite very much included. At a time when content around the world is just a click away, what is the relevance of remakes? “Adaptations are a universal phenomenon, even acclaimed directors like Vishal Bhardwaj have adapted Shakespeare with striking effect,” he reasons.
According to Raghav, adaptations work provided these offer a fresh perspective and are rooted in the cultural milieu into which the original story is transposed. And Gyaarah Gyaarah, he insists, is that the series set in his home state, which brings out the culture of Utttarakhand. On the interesting title of the series, that reads 11.11 numerically, which many see as a magical moment in time that can grant their wish, he admits, “It is indeed an angelic number and the time when my character in the series make a connection with past.” Time travel? But hasn’t OTT already offered us the very best in this genre of sci-fi with shows like Dark and Bodies? So what new can Gyaarah Gyaarah tap into? Well, he quips, “Pehle istemaal karo phir vishwas karo.” Calling the series a mind-boggling and riveting sequence of events that make us question our existence too, he, however, will not offer any homilies to his fans as to why they should watch the series. He says, “Today audiences are very smart and can smell good content on their own; no promotions or interviews can influence their decision. Content is the king and that’s why films like 12th Fail, Laapataa Ladies and Kill work.”
On his tryst with fame, he reminds, “When you are riding on the crest of success, no one realises that it has not come overnight.” Of course, this second runner-up of Dance India Dance 3 is not new to popularity. Only, he observes, “We live in a Kim Kardashian world where you are famous before you know why.” He would rather be known for his talent than numbers on social media.
Raghav feels lucky to be living in times when auditions are the ‘done’ thing and actors like him with no godfather can get a break. If Kill came his way after the makers had auditioned hundreds of actors, he would only be too happy to audition for dear friend Aryan Khan’s directorial. Those who think he has already landed a plum part in the superstar SRK’s son’s debut series, his lips are sealed. But he has certainly bagged yet another big-ticket production house Excel Entertainment’s film Yudhra, co-starring Siddhant Chaturvedi.
Born in a sleepy town of Dehradun, how did he dream so high? He smiles, “With nothing really happening in such towns when I was growing up, all we could do was daydream.” But dreaming alone cannot take you far. As they say ‘Dream big, work hard, make it happen’. He is not only making it happen, but happening too.
(Streaming on Zee5 from August 9)
