Rajesh Tailang interview: ‘The poet in me aids the actor in me’

There’s an ease with which Rajesh Tailang commands attention. As an idealistic lawyer in Mirzapur, he becomes the moral core of the crime-thriller series, adding a sense of middle-class familiarity to his understated performance. In contrast, he plays a lawyer again in Zee5’s family-drama, Bakaiti, but this time with a likeable comic punch as the series explores lighter shades of a middle-class household in Ghaziabad. With the show being renewed for Season 2, up for release on September 25 on the streamer, Rajesh tells The Hindu what made him be part of it in the first place.

“I liked the relatable storyline and the slice-of-life touch. I had majorly done a lot of dramatic and intense work before, so I wanted to explore this new side,” he says. The actor’s presence feels rereshing in Bakaiti. The humour is created with everyday situations as Rajesh plays a father, who is struggling to make ends meet. Even though he is not the center of all the comedy, Rajesh is reacting to a lot of absurd situations. As the popular consensus goes, Rajesh too agrees that working in a comedy is difficult.

“It is tough to cheat in comedy. You can know instantly know if it’s working or not,” he says, adding that he has done comedy during his theatre days. “While doing comedy, the results are more important than the process. But process becomes important during a serious role to know how you reached to that stage of crying. What is important in both is adaptability.”

The adaptability comes into play even during the collaboration with other actors in the scene. There is a natural progression of emotions between Rajesh and Sheeba Chadha, who plays the role of his wife in Bakaiti. The two have played a couple even in Mirzapur and Bandish Bandits before, apart from collaborating in other films like, Pagglait and Khuda Haafiz. Rajesh feels that there’s comfort in working with someone he has worked with before. But there’s also a challenge. “How do you find a new dynamic between each other every time? A husband and wife will have a different interpersonal relationship each time,” Rajesh says while giving out a nuance between the different couples they have played in these projects.

A still from ‘Bakaiti’ season 2
| Photo Credit:
Zee 5

“In Mirzapur and Bandish Bandits, our characters don’t touch each other as much as they do in Bakaiti. That intimacy of a relationship comes across more here. That’s how we try to bring a different side to the relationship,” he adds.

The actor has also played a father multiple times, right from the argumentative one in Anurag Kashyap’s Mukkabaaz or the one draped in sensitivity inDelhi Crime. Rajesh lends a humanistic core to the characters, pulling them away from stereotypes and adding a distinct sense of realism. Articulating his approach on playing these fathers on-screen, Rajesh says, “If someone comes up to me to describe a character as a father, I get a bit disappointed as an actor. Being a father is just a relationship to the protagonist. That’s not the character.” Instead, he thinks of all of his characters as heroes. “Because every person is the hero of their life. That helps me in thinking about their struggles which makes it feel more rounded. I also like to show their weakness along with the strengths, which adds a layer of humanity to them.”

All the complexities of this process comes across with a layer of simplicity in his performances, which don’t feel overworked. His ability to find nuance in the mundane is striking, seen also in some of the poetry that he writes. Rajesh’s debut poetry collection, Chaand Pe Chai (Vani Prakashan), was published in 2022. It is filled with the same effortless charm that is seen in his performances. “The poet in me helps the actor in me and the actor in me helps the poet,” Rajesh says as he explains a concept called as the “felt thought”.

A still from ‘Bakaiti’ season 2
| Photo Credit:
Zee 5

“There is feeling and there is thought. But poetry resides in the middle with felt thought. That is something which is important while performing and writing both. What is that thought which you have felt from within? Knowing that is helpful,” he says, while adding that the economy of poetry aids as well. “Poetry is all about expressing deeper feelings with lesser words. Similarly, in acting, I try to work with minimalism and follow the ‘less is more’ approach.”

The actor has realised these processes after years of working and doing it all over again. “Your thinking patterns evolve and you develop a method with time,” he says, revealing his core method to acting which he feels separates him from others. “I don’t look at what a character is feeling but what is he thinking. Feelings are by products of thought. And so, I look at the mental fabric of the character after which emotions automatically flow,” he says while ending with that belief in discovering more. “I have not known it all. I am still seeking for answers. I have not had my E = mc² moment yet,” he smiles.

Bakaiti season 2 will be released on Zee 5 on September 25