Rahul Bose - Biography

This man dons many hats. An ace rugby player, a brilliant actor and a writer too, Rahul Bose is an example to the young blood of India. He was brought up in Kolkata for the earlier part of his life and later his family shifted to Mumbai. He was always enthusiastic about acting. Ever since he was six, he participated in school plays. Co-curricular activities lured him a lot. He picked up rugby and boxing at quite an early age and also played cricket under Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi.
Bose started working in advertising and became quite popular in professional circuits. He turned into an actor with English August based on Upamanyu Chatterjee’s novel of the same name. Agastya Sen, the pivotal character of the novel brought him in limelight full fledged. The film was immensely popular in international circuits and became the First Indian Film which was bought by 20th Century Fox.
Simultaneously Bose worked in plays which gave his acting the backing of theatre experience. He went on to work in television with ‘A Mouthful of Sky’, one of India’s first English soap ventures and co-hosted BBC’s Style. He worked with Nasserudin Shah in Bombay Boys and with Dev Benegal again in Split Wide Open.
He worked in the British Theatre Circles as well. He came in Bollywood with Govind Nihalani’s Thakshak playing the main negative role. In 2000, Bose turned director with Everyone Says I’m fine.
The early part of this millennium turned gold for him when he began working with Aparna Sen. The two went on to work in a myriad films together after this. Starring with the multi talented Konkona Sen Sharma, Bose gave a brilliant performance in Mr and Mrs Iyer, a critique of a film which focused on religious disturbances in India.
Bose worked vastly in Bollywood as well. Jhankaar Beats was one of his first pure Bollywood ventures. Bose went on to work in Chameli with Kareena Kapoor. The film was immensely popular with the critics and won quite a few awards as well.
In 2006, Bose again worked with Konkona Sen Sharma in Aparna Sen’s 15 Park Avenue which dealt with the sensitive issue of Schizophrenia. Next, he worked with Mallika Sherawat in Pyaar Ke Side Effects. The film was a romantic comedy with a fresh narrative style. The film was appreciated by the critics. A sequel of the film is lined up which will star Farhan Akhtar and Vidya Balan.
Rahul Bose also worked in a few Bengali films like Anuranan, Kaalpurush and Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s Antaheen which went on to win the National Award that year. Bose is an atom of the reviving vein of art cinema in India especially Bengal. He worked with Kay Kay Menon in Shaurya which is the Indian adaptation of the famous Hollywood courtroom drama, A Few Good Men starring Tom Cruise. Bose again teamed up with Aparna Sen for The Japanese Wife based on Kunal Basu’s short story of the same name. He worked on Onir’s I Am as a victim of homosexual harassment.
Bose is currently working on the adaptation of Mohsin Hamid’s Moth Smoke, Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children based on Salman Rushdie’s Booker winning novel and Travelling with Mohammad along with Om Puri.
Bose was extensively used his public image for the better by involving in social welfare activities. He has worked in the Andaman and Nicobar post Tsunami as a venture of his NGO, The Foundation. He has worked for a general social peace and welfare. He is an ambassador of the World Youth Peace Movement and has been vocally participating in agitating for the Narmada Bachao Andolan. He was seen protesting at the Copenhagen World Climate Change Summit as well. He is the face of the Indian Rugby team and has played internationally as well.