Raj Shekar Interview
Q. You started your career away from the glamour industry and eventually built yourself as a model and actor. Looking back, what was the biggest turning point that made you believe you could actually build a career in this field?
I think the biggest turning point in my journey was when I realised that this industry could actually become more than just a dream for me: it could become my profession.
I started my career away from the glamour industry, and my journey was not something that happened overnight. I had responsibilities at a very young age, and I started working early in life. Modelling initially came into my life almost as a part-time opportunity. I remember doing my first photo-shoot in Chennai around 2015, and I was paid around ₹2,500. At that point, I didn’t know where this journey would take me. I was simply curious, passionate and willing to learn.
Then came the Elite Model Look competition in Bangalore, where I was selected as the winner in 2015. That was a very important moment for me because, for the first time, I felt that maybe I genuinely belonged in this industry. It gave me confidence, but more importantly, it gave me the courage to take myself seriously as a model.
After that, things started moving step by step. I got opportunities with brands, campaigns and commercial shoots, including Hyderabad Central, television commercials and fashion projects. Every opportunity taught me something new. But the real turning point was not one particular campaign or one particular title: it was the moment I realised that I was consistently getting opportunities because of the work I was putting in.
In 2020, I made one of the biggest decisions of my life. I left my regular job and decided to pursue this career full-time. It was a risky decision, especially because the pandemic came soon after and the entire industry came to a standstill. But even during that difficult period, I didn’t feel that I had made the wrong decision. If anything, it made me more determined.
For me, the biggest turning point was understanding that success in this industry isn’t about getting one big opportunity. It’s about staying relevant, continuously improving yourself and having the courage to keep going when things don’t happen immediately.
That mindset eventually took me from modelling towards acting as well. I started looking at myself not just as a model, but as an artist who could explore different characters, different mediums and different stories.
So, if I had to identify one turning point, I would say it was the moment I stopped waiting for someone to give me a chance and started creating opportunities for myself. That shift in mindset changed everything for me.
Today, when I look back at that boy who started working early and entered modelling with no certainty about where it would lead, I feel proud: not because the journey was easy, but because I never allowed the difficult phases to convince me that I didn’t belong here.
Q. You’ve worked across modelling, advertisements, television and films, and each space demands a very different version of you. Which transition was the most challenging for you, and what did it teach you about yourself?
I would say the transition from modelling to acting was the most challenging for me.
In modelling, a lot of the communication happens through your appearance, body language, expressions, posture and the way you carry yourself. You have to understand the camera, understand your angles and create an impact within a few seconds. Over the years, I became comfortable with that space.
But acting is completely different. The camera is not just looking at how you look: it is looking at what you are feeling. You have to understand a character, understand the situation, listen to the person opposite you, remember your lines, control your body language and still make the emotions feel natural.
Initially, that was challenging for me because I had spent so many years training myself to be very conscious of the camera. Acting taught me that sometimes you have to forget the camera completely and live in the moment.
I also realised that being a model can teach you confidence, discipline and presentation, but being an actor requires vulnerability. You have to be willing to show different sides of yourself, including emotions and imperfections. That was a completely different learning experience for me.
Television and advertisements taught me another important lesson: the ability to adapt quickly. In advertising, you may have very little time to understand a brief and deliver exactly what the director wants. Television requires consistency and energy because you’re working at a completely different pace. Films demand patience, preparation and a deeper understanding of the character.
So, every transition challenged me in a different way, but acting probably changed me the most as an artist.
It taught me that I don’t want to be defined only by how I look or by the image people have of me. I want to be recognised for what I can bring to a character and what I can make the audience feel.
I think that is the biggest thing I have learned about myself: that I am much more adaptable than I initially believed. Every new space has pushed me outside my comfort zone, and that’s where I have grown the most.
Q. Being recognised as one of Hyderabad’s Most Desirable Men brought a lot of attention to your appearance and modelling career. Has there ever been a point where you felt people were seeing your image more than the person behind it?
Yes, definitely. I think that is something almost anyone who works in the modelling and entertainment industry experiences at some point.
Being recognised as one of Hyderabad’s Most Desirable Men was a wonderful moment in my career. It gave me visibility and opened doors, and I’m genuinely grateful for that recognition. But at the same time, it also made me realise that when people see you primarily through your appearance, they can sometimes form an image of you before they actually know who you are.
There were moments when I felt people knew the model before they knew the person. They knew the photographs, the campaigns, the way I looked on camera, but they didn’t necessarily know the journey behind that image, the struggles, the responsibilities I had taken on early in life, or how hard I had worked to reach that position.
And honestly, I don’t see that as something negative. Appearance is part of my profession, and I’ve always taken that aspect seriously. But I never wanted it to become the complete definition of who I am.
That’s also one of the reasons I wanted to move beyond modelling and explore acting. Acting gives me an opportunity to show different dimensions of myself. I can play someone completely different from who people think I am. I can be vulnerable, imperfect, intense, funny, emotional: whatever the character demands.
Over time, I’ve learned that your image can open the first door, but your talent, discipline and personality are what make people remember you.
So today, I’m happy if someone notices my appearance, but I want them to stay because of the person and the artist behind it.
I think that’s the journey I’m still on: moving from being recognised for how I look to being respected for what I can create.
Q. You eventually stepped into acting through projects like Prav and television shows, and later became a contestant on Bigg Boss Telugu 6. What did acting teach you about expressing yourself that modelling never could?
Acting taught me that expressing yourself is not always about showing an emotion: it is about making people feel it.
In modelling, you learn to communicate through your eyes, expressions, body language and presence, but there is usually a very specific brief. You are presenting a particular image or emotion for the camera. Acting took me much deeper than that.
When I started working on acting projects and television, I realised that I had to understand the person I was portraying. I couldn’t simply think about how I looked on camera. I had to understand the character’s emotions, motivations, fears, relationships and circumstances. That made me look at myself differently as well.
Then Bigg Boss Telugu 6 was a completely different experience. There was no character to hide behind and no script to depend on. People were seeing me as Raj: my reactions, my emotions, my friendships, my disagreements, my vulnerable moments and even my mistakes.
That experience taught me something very important: sometimes the most powerful form of expression is simply being yourself.
As a model, I was trained to control my expressions. As an actor, I learned how to access them. And through Bigg Boss, I learned how to be comfortable with showing them without constantly worrying about how people might perceive me.
It also taught me that vulnerability is not weakness. Sometimes allowing people to see your real emotions makes you more relatable and more human.
So I would say modelling taught me how to communicate with the camera, acting taught me how to communicate through a character, and Bigg Boss taught me how to communicate as myself.
That combination has helped me understand who I am: not just as a model or actor, but as a person and an artist.
Q. Bigg Boss puts your personality under constant observation, without the usual screen or character to hide behind. What was one thing about yourself that you discovered or understood differently after experiencing that environment?
Bigg Boss was one of the most intense experiences of my life because, for the first time, there was nowhere to hide behind a character, a photoshoot, a performance or even an image that I had created for myself.
One thing I discovered about myself was how much I value authenticity.
When you are constantly being observed, you become very aware of how people may perceive you. Initially, I think there is a natural tendency to control your reactions or think about what people might be thinking about you. But after spending time in that environment, I realised that you simply cannot keep performing a version of yourself 24/7.
There were moments when I was happy, frustrated, emotional, angry or vulnerable, and all of those sides became visible. That experience made me understand that I don’t have to be perfect all the time. I can have emotions, I can make mistakes, I can disagree with someone and still remain true to who I am.
I also discovered that I am much more resilient than I thought. When you are away from your normal life, your family, your routine and your personal space, even small things can become emotionally intense. You learn to deal with situations in real time, without being able to simply walk away from them.
Most importantly, Bigg Boss taught me not to define myself completely by other people’s opinions.
People will have different perceptions of you, and that’s okay. Some people will understand you immediately, some won’t, and some will only see one side of you. What matters is that you know who you are and what values you want to stand by.
So, if I had to put it in one sentence, Bigg Boss taught me that being yourself is actually harder than performing a character, but it is also much more powerful.
I came out of that experience with a better understanding of myself, more emotional maturity and a lot more confidence in simply being Raj.
Q. From modelling for major brands to working in entertainment, your career has involved a lot of auditions, rejection and uncertainty. Was there a particular rejection or difficult phase that later became important in shaping your career?
Absolutely. I think rejection has been one of the biggest teachers in my career.
When you come into modelling and entertainment, you quickly realise that talent alone doesn’t guarantee that you will get every opportunity. Sometimes you can prepare well, look right for the project and give your best audition, and still not get selected. Earlier, I used to take rejection very personally. I would wonder what I was missing or whether I was good enough.
But with experience, I understood that rejection is often not a reflection of your worth. Sometimes it’s simply about the requirement of that particular project, the timing, the character, the chemistry or what the team is looking for.
One of the most difficult phases for me was around 2020. I had made the decision to leave my regular job and pursue modelling and entertainment full-time. It was a big risk because I was moving away from the security of a conventional career and choosing something where nothing was guaranteed.
And then the pandemic happened.
The entire industry almost came to a standstill. Shoots stopped, projects were postponed and opportunities became uncertain. That was probably one of the moments when I questioned myself the most. But I also realised that I had already made the decision to bet on myself, and I couldn’t allow one difficult phase to decide the rest of my career.
That period changed my relationship with rejection. I stopped looking at every "no" as an ending and started looking at it as part of the process.
Some opportunities that didn’t work out eventually made space for completely different opportunities: television, acting, Bigg Boss and other experiences that I may not have imagined at the beginning of my journey.
Today, when I face rejection, I don’t ask myself, "Why didn’t they choose me?" as much as I used to. I ask, "What can I learn from this, and what’s next?"
I think that’s one of the biggest changes in me.
My career has taught me that sometimes the rejection you hate at the time can actually redirect you towards something that is much more suitable for you.
So I don’t see rejection as the opposite of success anymore. I see it as part of the journey that builds the person who is eventually ready for success.
Q. Looking at where you started and where you are today, what do you think has changed more: your ambitions or your definition of success?
I think my ambition has always been there, but my definition of success has definitely changed.
When I started, my ambition was very simple. I wanted to create a better life for myself, build a name in the industry and prove that I could actually make a place for myself in a field that I had entered without any strong background or connections.
At that stage, success was largely about getting opportunities. A good campaign, a big brand, a television project, being recognised or seeing my face on a billboard, it all felt like a milestone, and it still means a lot to me.
But as I’ve grown, I’ve realised that success is much bigger than visibility.
Today, I don’t just want to be known. I want to be respected for my work. I want to take on characters that challenge me, work with good directors and teams, continue growing as an actor and build a career that has longevity.
I’ve also become more interested in the journey than constantly chasing the next milestone. I want to be able to look back years from now and feel that I evolved, not just professionally, but as a person.
My ambition hasn’t become smaller. If anything, it has become bigger. But it has become more meaningful.
Earlier, I wanted to prove that I could make it. Today, I want to prove to myself how far I can actually take it.
And I think that’s the biggest difference.
For me, success today is not simply about being recognised when I walk into a room. It’s about leaving something behind when I walk out: a body of work, memorable characters, meaningful collaborations and a journey that I can genuinely be proud of.
Q. What was going through your mind when you realised you had won Mr. India 2021, and did that moment change the way you approached your career afterwards?
Honestly, before Mr. India, there were many moments when I questioned myself. I had faced a lot of rejection in auditions and castings. Sometimes I would even take my friends along with me, people who weren’t even interested in modelling, and somehow they would get selected, while I wouldn’t.
And somewhere, that started getting into my head. I would ask myself, "Am I really capable of making it in this fashion industry? Is this really meant for me?"
So when I got the call for Mr. India after the second wave of COVID, it genuinely blew me away, in the best possible way. Because for someone who had spent years doubting whether he was good enough, suddenly being told that you were being considered for a national-level platform was a very emotional moment.
It felt like a small validation of everything I had been doing all those years. All those rejections, all those moments of self-doubt, all the times I wondered whether I belonged in this industry, suddenly, they felt like they had a purpose.
And representing myself at a national level was an incredible experience. It gave me a different kind of confidence. More than the title itself, Mr. India made me believe in myself again.
I think sometimes one opportunity can change the way you see yourself. For me, that opportunity was Mr. India.
Q. After spending so much time in front of cameras, tell us honestly: when the camera is finally off, what is the most “Raj” thing about you that people probably wouldn’t expect?
Honestly, I think the most "Raj" thing about me is that once the camera is off, I’m actually a very simple person.
People probably expect that someone who has spent so many years modelling and working in entertainment would always be dressed up, conscious about his appearance or constantly thinking about the next photoshoot. But when I’m not working, I really enjoy switching off from all of that.
I like having my own space, spending time with people I’m comfortable with, trying something new, travelling, exploring new places and sometimes just doing completely normal things without thinking about how it looks on camera.
In fact, one thing people may not expect is that I genuinely enjoy learning things for myself. Even something as simple as trying to cook something new can make me weirdly proud. Recently, I tried making chicken curry for the first time, and I was genuinely happy that I got it right!
I think that’s the side of me people don’t always see. On camera, there is a certain image of Raj: the model, the actor, the person who is always well-groomed and ready for the next project. But off camera, I’m much more relaxed, curious and sometimes surprisingly ordinary.
And I think that’s important to me. The industry can make you very conscious of your image, so when the camera is off, I actually enjoy being just Raj without having to perform anything.
If I had to describe the most "Raj" thing about me in one sentence, I’d say: I may look very camera-conscious, but off camera, I just want to be comfortable, have a good laugh and enjoy the little things.
Bio
Raj Shekar is a model and actor whose journey in the entertainment industry began with modelling and grew into opportunities across fashion, advertising, television, and films. He gained recognition after winning Elite Model Look in 2015 and later won the Mr. India 2021 title. Over the years, he has continued to explore different facets of the industry, building his career through persistence, versatility, and a willingness to take on new challenges.
Interviewed By Lavish Singh Rajawat
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