‘Kennedy’ actor Rahul Bhat talks about migrating from Kashmir at the age of 15: ‘It shapes your life’

Actor Rahul Bhat, whose film ‘Kennedy’ will be premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, opened up about migrating to Mumbai from Kashmir and quitting television at his peak after gaining fame with the show ‘Heena’ in 1998.

‘Every actor has their own approach. Some people go to NFD and FTII, I think that’s the best way to get around this. I wasn’t fortunate enough to do that because migration happened around the time and I am a Kashmiri Pandit. Those days were difficult for us even as a family.

We had just migrated from Kashmir, my parents were not that doing well, whole community was not doing well but I wanted to be an actor,’ he told indianexpress.com.

Rahul Bhat further states that he has not struggled in life even if there have been times when he had to pick up work for money. He said he chose this lifestyle.

‘I have not struggled; I need to tell you this. It is perseverance. I could have gone on and on and fizzled out or I could say ok enough, I have other options. I could do so many things, but I wanted to be an actor. I chose my path,’ he said.

Bhat recalled the time when opportunities came to him ‘quite quickly’. He said he had a lot of offers for films, but that was not the kind of work he wanted to do. Bhat said he understood that if he did do these films he would burn out and become one of those B-grade actors.

The actor says he chose to do less work and work on himself more and in the process, he ended up learning a lot from filmmakers he worked with.

When asked about the time he had to migrate from his homeland Kashmir during the exodus, Rahul Bhat shared that he was only fifteen when he left Kashmir and the exodus really impacted his life thereafter.

‘I was fifteen when we migrated from Kashmir. And the whole migration was a turmoil that has left a great effect on my heart and on my mind because things that happen to you as a teenager, it shapes your life.

We were Kashmiri Pandits, and due to the whole exodus, we all had to go out of Kashmir. So we went to Jammu where I went to college and I came to Mumbai when I was 19. I was a good student. I could easily get into engineering or medicine but I wanted to be an actor.

I asked my father what I should do to become an actor and we had only heard that I’d need to go to Mumbai and that’s what I did. I was stupid. I should have studied acting. After coming here, I came to know that acting also needs a lot of work and there is lot of learning. The kind of acting I wanted to do, the kind of actor I wanted to become, was not one of those… you know… That happens only if you are very lucky in the film industry that aapki picture bohot chal jaati hai and you become a star.

If your film doesn’t do well then it is a very uphill task. I was ready for that uphill task and here I am,’ he said.

When asked if he ever went back home, the actor said, ‘No. Not yet. I went once ten years ago, and they all came out and opened their homes but it was like a tourist. I was a tourist.

But I feel in my heart that now Kashmiri Pandits are so (successful), they have all settled outside the valley, everybody is doing something.If I am an actor here, I am not going to leave my acting and settle in Kashmir. That time has gone.’

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