At home in Odisha’s Kandhamal district, his two older brothers are a mason and a marginal farmer, respectively, and he would have ended up as one among thousands of faceless migrant labourers who leave the State in search of work every year.
However, Rajkumar Naik, a migrant labourer from Odisha, has scripted a different story. From being a hotel boy washing utensils to landing up as an actor in the Malayalam flick Jallikattu — India’s official entry to the Oscars, the 25-year-old youth has had an incredible journey.
He set out for Kerala after dropping out from school in Class XII in Kandhamal in 2012. Though he worked as a hotel boy and assisted in cooking, his passion for building muscles in a gym continued. His motivated and disciplined exercise drew the attention of the gym owner, who is a cousin of filmmaker Lijo Jose Pellissery.
As luck would have it, Mr. Naik got a cook’s job at the filmmaker’s place. “While directing Ee.Ma.Yau, Mr. Pellissery jokingly asked me if I could show some acting skill by appearing in the film. I immediately nodded in affirmative though I did not have any link with acting. I was asked to be part of funeral procession in that film. The four-second appearance set my acting career rolling,” he said.
As of now, the Odisha youth has acted in six Malayalam films and his screen time has gone up with every film. “I have acted with four directors. I hope to take my acting career forward and migrate back to Odisha to do an Odia film,” he said.
