Starting his career from reality shows to hosting, Raghav Juyal has come a long way in his career. Though he appeared in several movies, it was with Nikhil Nagesh Bhat's 'Kill', the Dehradun lad received worldwide recognition for his stellar act. His recent release is Zee5's 'thriller cop drama 'Gyaarah Gyaarah' where Raghav can be seen in yet another challenging role- a police officer. It is to note that, the web series marks his second collaboration with Karan Johar and Guneet Monga. In an exclusive interview, Juyal talks about the hard work he put in the 14 years of his journey, taking a break, his characters in 'Kill' and 'Gyaarah Gyaarah', and a lot more.
Reflecting on his journey in the industry, Raghav said, ''It has been fourteen years since I have been in the industry. I started as a back dancer and then I did hosting and finally, I am here. There has been a lot of hard work and patience involved in it. My nature also played a big part.''
Raghav never shied away from giving auditions. ''I used to keep my ego aside and give lots of auditions. I used to get rejected but it never let me down. The casting directors saw me auditioning and they called me for different auditions. I auditioned for Kill and I really worked on my craft. I got trained as an actor for 5-6 years and auditioned regularly. That really helped me and I came out of my comfort zone,'' he shared.
Raghav took a break from what he was doing. It was his conscious decision as he wanted to surprise his fans by doing something different. It became monotonous for him to be seen everywhere, and all the time. He felt there has to be a reason to be seen. The 'Dance India Dance 3' contestant shared, ''So I started to be less seen and stayed away from my fans. Then I made a comeback with this film called Kill which is now a rage worldwide and a cult classic. It was because I had to give this surprise to all. I had to really kill it to give them surprise because audience can judge anyone. So, I really had to give a bang on performance and that surprise element worked really well for me.''
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The 'Street Dancer' actor gave audition for 'Gyaarah Gyaarah' during Kill. Umesh Bist, the director of the series wanted to take his audition but it was not proper because Raghav's body language was of his character from 'Kill'. ''I didn't realise while auditioning and then the director made me realise that my body language was funny suddenly. I told him that it took nine months to get this body language. To get out of the body language of one character and then get into another, you need time to reach that excellence. It took me time and then I gave the second audition and then a third and got the rhythm of the character,'' he said.
While reading the script of 'Gyaarah Gyaarah', it made him question his own existence. The 33-year-old elaborated, ''It's a mind-boggling series and there are lots of mysteries and thrills. I realised it's something different which is rooted in india that we really need right now and especially coming from makers like Guneet Monga and Karan Johar, it feels like we are in an international level series.''
Though he played a cold-blooded killer in 'Kill', Raghav called it was fun for him to play Fani, his character. But playing Yug in 'Gyaarah Gyaarah' took a toll on him. The actor shared, ''I did the series with lots of pain. The reason is the character was very challenging for me. He had past traumas and was wounded from his past and guilt-driven. He was vulnerable yet he was a policeman. He used to have problem with his own job. It was difficult for me to understand with what motive I would play the character. Also, I purposely tried to speak very off rhythm because this character thinks very fast.''
'Gyaarah Gyaarah' is currently streaming on Zee5. It also starred Dhairya Karwa and Kritika Kamra in key roles.
