Rajeev Verma

QAMYAB – THE FORGOTTEN GEMS OF BOLLYWOOD

Qamyab is our humble tribute to all those lesser-known actors, one hit wonders and junior artists who we see umpteen times but don’t know about; beyond their faces. These actors have been an integral part of Bollywood but didn’t get their due. This series is our sincere attempt to put a name to these faces, familiarize them to our readers and celebrate their achievements in life – however big or small. We believe that every artist contributes in his/her own way to the cinema’s success. Qamyab will explore the unknown lives of such actors and artists as we believe even these forgotten gems of Bollywood deserve their due recognition today.

So far in this series, we have covered a few actresses playing mother roles in Bollywood. But this week, we take up an actor known for playing father’s character – a strict one at that!!

The character of a father has been portrayed by many stalwarts right from the golden era of Hindi Cinema. Motilal, K.N. Singh, Raj Mehra Rehman, Nazir Hussain, Manmohan Krishna were the common names. By the ’70s, former villains like Pran and Madan Puri turned to supporting roles of the hero or heroine’s dad. The ’80s saw former heroes like Sunil Dutt, Biswajit, Shammi Kapoor, Rajendra Kumar, etc playing onscreen fathers. This decade also had versatile actors like Anupam Kher and Kader Khan playing such roles with either negative shades or a comic touch.

Two newcomers joined the league by end of ’80s – Alok Nath and Rajeev Verma. Interestingly, both rose to fame with the same film – Sooraj Barjatya’s Maine Pyar Kiya (1989). While Alok Nath had done few films before Maine Pyar Kiya, Rajeev Verma was complete newcomer and got associated with this blockbuster forever.

Rajeev Verma’s character in Maine Pyar Kiya, is of a strict father who loves his son Prem (Salman Khan) a lot but gets brainwashed by his unscrupulous business partner (Ajit Vachani) to oppose Prem’s love with his own childhood friend’s daughter (Bhagyashree). Verma’s role of a doting yet strict dad of Salman was appreciated by the audience so much that they still refer to him as Salman’s dad in Maine Pyar Kiya instead of his real name.

Rajeev Verma was born on 28th June, 1949 in Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh. He was well educated and obtained Architectural degree from Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology and later obtained the Master’s degree in Urban Design from Delhi School of Planning and Architecture. On his mother’s advice and being the eldest son, he took up a government job to support his family.

Even after being highly qualified with a good job in hand, Rajeev was bitten by the acting bug. As a kid, he was fond of Ram Leela in his village and actively participated in it. Verma believes that it was his love for Ram Leela that gave birth to the actor in him.

While doing Government service, Rajeev started doing theatre simultaneously. In the ’80s, when Doordarshan (DD) reached every Indian home with some great TV serials, Rajeev Verma happened to be in Delhi and a producer offered him the TV show called Chunauti (1987).

At that time, Rajeev didn’t consider acting as a profession but nevertheless, did the serial. He also appeared in another popular DD series Mujrim Haazir (1988.) But it was Chunauti where he played the college principal, which got him noticed.

After Chunauti’s success, Rajeev Verma signed his first film Maine Pyar Kiya, which went on to become a blockbuster hit. At the age of forty years when many actors think of hanging their boots, Rajeev made his dream Bollywood debut. Besides Salman and Reema Lagoo, Rajeev’s important scenes were with another Bollywood debutant Laxmikant Berde. Be it the comic cigarette scene or the serious one where Berde makes him realize how much he loves and misses his son; Rajeev’s acting was impeccably perfect. His character was much loved and accepted by the audience.

In spite his debut success, Rajeev Verma had to wait for two more years for his next releases which were Nischaiy (1992) with Salman Khan and Vinod Khanna and Deedar (1992) with Akshay Kumar in the lead. He played negative roles in both these films, which bombed at the box office. His next film Zid (1994) in which he again played the strict father with negative shades, was also rejected by the audience. It seemed like Rajeev was getting typecast in similar roles.

During this time in mid ’90s, Rajeev decided to quit his government job and become a full-time actor as he was financially secure and later, shifted to Mumbai with his family to concentrate on his acting career. In the coming years, Rajeev was part of some significant films like Taaqat (1995), Yeh Majdhaar (1996), Jeet (1996), Bal Bramhachari (1996) and Pardesi Babu (1998) but none of these films helped his career. He did get positive feedback for Pardesi Babu, where he again played the strict father of Shilpa Shetty.

The year 1999 proved to be lucky for Rajeev Verma, where he appeared in many successful films mostly with Salman Khan in the lead. These films include Biwi No 1, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Hum Saath Saath Hain and Kachche Dhaage. Hum Saath Saath Hain was his comeback to Rajshri Productions after Maine Pyar Kiya and also his last collaboration with them till date.

Next, Rajeev got a big break with the TV serial Heena which had the lovely Simone Singh and Rahul Bhatt in the lead. The show ran successfully for close to five years. Seeing the euphoric response of Heena, Rajeev decided to focus more on television as it offered more scope and depth in characters unlike films where he was totally typecast as the strict and negative father.

In the new millennium, television industry saw a huge boom and Rajeev Verma rode this wave successfully appearing in many serials as a soft spoken and caring father, who always showered love on his kids. The famous production house Balaji started the trend of young actors playing parents to main leads of practically the same age but Rajiv Verma was perfect fit for such father roles. At least he played his age!!

Some of his popular work on television is Dishayen (2001), Saath Phere (2005), Betiyaan Apna Ya Para Dhan (2006), Chhoti Bahu (2008), Mrs. Kaushik Ki Paanch Bahuein (2011) and Aur Pyar Ho Gaya (2014)

In one of his interviews, Rajeev remarked that while he did serials on various channels, Doordarshan is the only channel which offered the best content. It is because of the television industry that actors like him can survive and experiment with different roles.

In between his TV serials, Rajeev managed to be part of big films like Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega (2000), Karz (2002), Andaz (2003), Chalte Chalte (2003),Koi Mil Gaya (2003), Madhoshi (2004), Aarakshan (2011), Bbuddah… Hoga Terra Baap (2011) and Wah Taj (2016).

Rajeev Verma now spends most of his time doing theatre in Bhopal where he dons the directors hat. On the personal front, very few might know that he is related to Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan.

Rajeev Verma is married to Rita Bhaduri (not the actress having same name), who is the younger sister of actress Jaya Bhaduri. Rajeev met Rita during his early theatre days and they fell in love and got married. Rita is an educationist and a theatre actor, who runs a group called Bhopal theatres. They are blessed with two sons.

A parting trivia – During the Covid pandemic when theatres were going through terrible phase with no shows and most experts forecasting their end, it was Rajeev Verma’s optimistic prediction that theatres will survive the difficult time and things will be back to normal soon. He has been proved right and how!!