An Interview of bollywood actor Rajendra Gupta

Famous bollywood, Stage and TV actor Rajendra Gupta invited as a guest in Credent TV’s famous show, Dear Sahityakar. He is currently seen in Sony TV’s daily soap ‘Dosti Anokhi. The show hosted by famous writer Malini Gautam. Rajendra Gupta done popular shows like Chandrakanta, Intezaar, and Chidiya Ghar which continued for 6 years.

When did Rajendra Gupta develop an interest in acting

He said, he come from a typical agarwal family who have no relation with arts or acting. Acting is seen there as a hobby not career. Since the start, I had no inclination towards studies but acting. I used to participate in plays at annual fests and youth festivals during high school and college. Soon after I enrolled in NSD (National School of Drama). I came to Mumbai in 1985. I have always followed my heart and impulses to make decisions in life. Mostly I have done freelancing or theatres as directors in the early part of my career. I even went back to do my family business but realised I don’t belong here. Later I joined serials and continued it till date.

Interest in Direction and Acting

Rajendra Gupta Said’ “In Spite of 3 years I took 4 years in NSD. For the specialization, my mentors put me in acting. But I was an introvert as compared to the extrovert personality other actors possessed. A different kind of defeat I felt and sent an application to the director to allow me change my specialization. I started my career as a director working in cities like Delhi, Lucknow, Jaipur, Indore, Bhopal, Chandigarh etc.

You have more than 40 years of experience in the field. Did you ever get bored?

No, but I have felt frustrated in between by continuously doing TV. Even Though all my tv shows were superhit i had an annoyance in me that why the film industry doesn’t approach me. I never went to them but expected to be called. For this reason I quit TV for 4-5 years.

Rajendra Gupta Said, “We started an informal non-commercial meeting platform in the year 1998 from my house for arts and artists. It was held twice a month. People used to gather and recite poems, narrate stories and plays. This platform was given the name “Chopal.” Popular personalities like Gulzar sahab, Jagjit Singh, Pushpa Bharti etc were part of it. This was a great platform where artists enjoyed and got involved in various things.

Are you seeing a difference in dedication being put in shows now and before

Definitely there’s a change in pattern. We are living in a world where everything is commercialized. Earlier single episode was telecasted every week on Doordarshan. Today there are n number of private channels which are running for the sole motive of earning profit. They earn through ads they run and for that reason many shows are running for more than 10-15 years. Obviously the quality gets compromised in the process because the focus is to create more and more episodes to run ads.

Your relationship with Hindi poetry

Rajendra Gupta said,”I was not a student of Hindi literature. I got interested in it through drama. Plays mostly come from Hindi literature. During my course in NSD I came across “Andhayug” which I also directed later with young talents in Kalidas Samaroh at Ujjain. Andhayug is a verse play full of emotions and my first interaction with poetry. Poems are a great way to express your feelings in little words with powerful effect. People like my narration of poetry and plays which motivates me to continue this passion in life. The actor in me helps me with this and social media is the best platform today to reach out to people. Hence I have become active on social media.