Ahead of Prahaar, exploring Rajkummar Rao's career through his biopic performances

Rajkummar Rao will portray prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam in Avinash Arun's Prahaar. The role continues his career-long engagement with complex real-life figures.

In Short

• Rajkummar Rao excels in diverse biopics, portraying complex real-life figures
• Prahaar: The Ujjwal Nikam Story releases Oct 16, 2026, showcasing Rao as a public prosecutor
• Rao’s roles include lawyer Shahid Azmi, revolutionary Subhas Chandra Bose, and entrepreneur Srikanth Bolla

Rajkummar Rao seems to have a rather interesting career plan. Just when you think you have figured him out, he decides to become somebody else. A lawyer fighting for justice, a revolutionary, a terrorist, a freedom fighter, an entrepreneur who refuses to let his disability define him, and now, a prosecutor who has handled some of India’s most high-profile criminal cases. For an actor who has built his career on disappearing into characters, real life appears to offer an endless supply of possibilities.

His latest outing, Prahaar: The Ujjwal Nikam Story, sees Rao play the public prosecutor known for handling cases such as the 1993 Mumbai blasts and the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks trial. Directed by Avinash Arun, the courtroom drama is set to release on October 16, 2026, with Wamiqa Gabbi, Jaideep Ahlawat and Sikandar Kher among the cast.

At the India Today Conclave, Nikam said he laid down one important condition for the film: nobody, including himself, should be glorified. That makes the project particularly interesting. Playing a public figure is one thing; portraying him without turning the film into a victory lap is quite another. And if Rao’s filmography is anything to go by, he is hardly afraid of complicated lives.

In fact, biopics have become something of a recurring theme in his career. Not every film has set the box office on fire, but several have given Rao the opportunity to showcase the sort of transformation that goes well beyond a change of hairstyle or a convincing pair of spectacles.

Take Shahid (2013), the film that earned him a National Film Award for Best Actor, shared with Suraj Venjaramoodu. Playing lawyer and human rights activist Shahid Azmi, Rao brought quiet conviction to a story about a man who turned his own experience of imprisonment into a fight for justice. He reportedly met Azmi’s family, observed courtroom proceedings and researched the world his character inhabited. The film earned around Rs 3.6 crore worldwide, but its real achievement was establishing Rao as an actor capable of carrying a difficult story without the usual Bollywood fireworks.

He had already played revolutionary Lokenath Bal in Chittagong (2012), a historical drama about the uprising against British rule. It was a smaller role in an ensemble, but one that hinted at his willingness to be part of a story bigger than himself. That instinct continued with Bose: Dead/Alive (2017), where Rao took on the formidable task of playing Subhas Chandra Bose. The web series gave him room to explore the revolutionary’s life and legacy across episodes, while confronting the expectations attached to one of India’s most recognisable historical figures. And he was so invested that he did not even think twice before shaving his head for the part.

Then came Omerta (2018), which took Rao into much darker territory. As Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the British-born terrorist associated with the kidnapping of Western tourists and the murder of journalist Daniel Pearl, he played a man audiences were hardly expected to admire. There was no inspirational arc or convenient redemption waiting at the end. The performance was unsettling, but the film struggled commercially, earning approximately Rs 4.5 crore worldwide. It was another reminder that Rao’s interest in real-life characters isn’t restricted to people whose stories come with an obvious emotional payoff.

With Srikanth (2024), he returned to a more inspirational narrative, playing visually impaired entrepreneur Srikanth Bolla. The challenge was to portray Bolla’s physicality and mannerisms without reducing him to a collection of gestures. Rao anchored a story about ambition, prejudice and refusing to accept limitations imposed by others. The film collected approximately Rs 50 crore net in India and Rs 62.9 crore worldwide, emerging as a semi-hit. It was a welcome reminder that a biographical drama could connect with mainstream audiences without a superhero, a sprawling cinematic universe or a conventional action-hero entry. The film was recently also honoured at the recently announced National Awards.

In Hansal Mehta’s Aligarh (2016), Rajkummar Rao played journalist Deepu Sebastian, who reports on the story of professor Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, whose privacy is violated after his sexuality is exposed. Though not a biopic of Sebastian, the role added another real-life portrayal to Rao’s filmography. He met the journalist and worked on his Malayalam-influenced Hindi accent, bringing empathy and curiosity to a character who sees a human story where others see a headline.

The common thread across these performances is not simply the physical transformation, though Rao has repeatedly shown a willingness to work on the details. It is the range of people he has chosen to inhabit, as every role needed to be played with a different emotional vocabulary. Each demands a different understanding of the person beneath the public image. And Rao’s best work often lies in making that process feel invisible.

Of course, he isn’t the only actor drawn to biographical cinema, and not every film has worked equally well. But he has moved between real-life heroes, deeply flawed individuals and historical icons without being boxed into one kind of performance. The awards have come, the box-office outcomes have varied, and the genre has continued to offer him new challenges.

His next big transformation is Dada: The Sourav Ganguly Story, in which Rao will play the former India captain. Scheduled for May 14, 2027, the film will trace Ganguly’s journey and his impact on Indian cricket. The first-look poster recreated the iconic shirt-waving celebration at Lord’s, immediately inviting comparisons between the actor and the cricketer.

Rao has since acknowledged the backlash over the poster’s execution, saying the team learnt its lesson and should not have rushed it. Playing someone as familiar as Ganguly comes with its own pressure: audiences already have a mental picture of the man, and they will be watching closely for every detail.

From Ujjwal Nikam to Sourav Ganguly, Rao’s upcoming choices suggest that his fascination with real lives is far from over. Perhaps that is the appeal of biopics for an actor who has spent years proving he can be almost anyone. Every new role comes with a different set of rules, a different history and a different person to understand. And for Rajkummar Rao, living somebody else’s life might just be one of the most reliable ways to keep reinventing his own career.

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