Rajkummar Rao takes his film Shahid as a learning says, 'We don’t really need a lot of money to make a good film'

Rajkummar Rao has a filmography full of several applaud worthy performance but one of the earliest gems has been filmmaker’s Hansal Mehta’s film Shahid. The actor who has done a range of diverse roles in his career of over 12 years in Bollywood won his first National Award for the film and in a recent interview looked back at what made the film so special.

Based on the life of lawyer Shahid Azmi, the biographic drama has completed 10 years since release this year. Rajkummar who is presently celebrating the success of his Netflix film Monica, O My Darling, spoke at length with IMDb about Shahid and how it introduced him to Hansal Mehta who like his family now. The actor spoke about a particular emotional moment from the making of the film and it involved his meeting with Shahid Azmi’s mother.

“It was a small budget film, but all we had was passion and the fire to tell a story with utmost sincerity, and that’s what we were aiming for. I remember when Shahid’s mother came to meet us during the initial days of the shoot, and she just kept looking at me because I reminded her of Shahid, her son, and then she asked for a pen, and she gave me a pen. She had put that pen in my pocket and said to me to that, keep this pen because Shahid always used to carry a pen, and that was so emotional for me,” Rajkummar said during the interview.

Rajkummar also spoke about Shahid facing financial issues during the making and how at times the shoot would be halted as the makers would be waiting for more money to come in to continue the project.

Talking about his take away from the project Rajkummar humbly summed up his experience saying, “It gave me and Hansal Sir our first National Award, my first Filmfare award and so many more accolades, so it will always remain very, very special to me. What I learned from Shahid is we don’t really need a lot of money to make a good film. All you need is a good story, a good heart, a good maker, and a lot of passion to tell that story sincerely. It’s films like Shahid that keep me going as an actor. This is the true meaning of cinema for me.”

Rajkummar will next be seen on screen in the upcoming films Bheed and Mr and Mrs Mahi.