Mumbai: After staying away from the film industry for almost two decades, actor Rajat Bedi marked his return with Aryan Khan’s directorial debut ‘Ba***ds of Bollywood’.
In an interview with Siddharth Kannan, Rajat shared that his grandfather Rajinder Singh Bedi was a celebrated Urdu writer and director who had worked with legends like Prithviraj Kapoor, Dharmendra, and others.
His father Narendra Bedi, who started his career as an assistant to Raj Kapoor, has directed several blockbusters such as ‘Benaam’, ‘Adalat’, ‘Jawani Diwani’, and many more.
Rajat opened up about his early life and how the industry had abandoned his family after his father’s death.
“I was nine years old when I lost my father. He was 45. I remember vividly that no one from the industry looked back at us, except for director Prakash Mehra and his family. For about six months to a year after Papa’s death, Prakash-ji sent money to our house, telling my mother, ‘Bhabhi, don’t worry.’ My mother has been a housewife all her life. She hasn’t done anything apart from raising three children on her own. Besides Prakash-ji, no one else looked back. It’s a very unforgiving industry,” Rajat shared.
“After that, we were out of the industry until I decided to start working. One day, my mum asked me what I wanted to do. I was lost. She suggested I assist Ramesh Sippy. She spoke to him personally, and he agreed immediately. I was 18 when I joined him and worked on the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Zamaana Deewana. I was quite close to SRK at that time; we worked together for about two and a half years. He used to call me ‘Tiger’ because I was this aggressive guy — and also because there were two Rajats on set,” he added.
Rajat made his acting debut in 1998 with the film ‘2001: Do Hazaar Ek’. Thereafter, he worked in several movies including ‘International Khiladi’, ‘Indian’, ‘Jaani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahani’, ‘Koi… Mil Gaya’, ‘Partner’.