In a career spanning 15 years, Rajkummar Rao has delivered several unforgettable performances, often playing small-town and everyday characters with striking authenticity. From ‘Kai Po Che’, ‘CityLights’ and ‘Bareilly Ki Barfi’ to ‘Newton’, ‘Stree’ and ‘Bhool Chuk Maaf’, his connection with India’s heartland has been evident and applauded. But does that mean filmmakers approach him only with such roles? Of characters from the rural Hindi belt that he plays very well? Rajkummar addressed this perception in a chat with PeepingMoon.com and shared how he views the so-called "typecasting".

He said, “Producers come to me with a lot of things. It's not like I am only offered these heartland characters. I love playing them, no doubt, because I am one of them. I am like one of them and I believe most of the population of the country lives in these heartlands and come from that background, a very middle-class background. So I love telling them their own stories through my films. But there are a few films I am doing which are not about heartland stories. There was ‘Srikanth’ and there was ‘Mr. and Mrs. Mahi’, which was a drama film. Dada’s (Sourav Ganguly) biopic will happen next year, so a variety of projects are coming now. So yes, I am not only subject to the space of one chakra.”

‘Maalik’ is not a conscious escape from that image, he clarified: “Actually, in the last year, I've done ‘Stree 2’, ‘Vicky Vidya’, and ‘Bhool Chuk Maaf’, and these three are somewhat like small-town stories. But there is a different kind of work happening. Just in this year, these three films came, so maybe that's the reason people started thinking I am doing small-town comedies only. But I am not. ‘Maalik’ I didn't do because I wanted to get rid of some image. It's not like I was offered an action film for the first time. I was, but I couldn't connect with those stories. I thought the good stories were missing in those scripts.”

Rajkummar Rao’s ‘Maalik’ hits theatres on Friday. Directed by Pulkit and backed by Tips Films and Northern Lights Films, the film is a gritty action thriller co-starring Manushi Chillar, Huma Qureshi, Prosenjit Chatterjee and others. In ‘Maalik’, the National Award-winning actor steps into his most powerful and intense avatar yet.