Feb 26, 2026 7:58pm IST
“PR Builds Perception, Not Truth”: ‘Kennedy’ Star Rahul Bhat On Manufactured Fame (EXCLUSIVE)
Actor Rahul Bhat has delivered several compelling performances over the years. As he reunites with one of his favourite filmmakers, Anurag Kashyap, for "Kennedy", a project that remained in limbo for a couple of years he says he is both happy and content about the collaboration. At the same time, the actor, who has largely stayed away from PR-driven brand building, says he cannot manufacture stories about himself; he is an actor and does his best work on set.
In an exclusive chat with Variety India, when asked whether actors who avoid brand building through PR, perception management, social media and algorithms are punished by the ecosystem, Bhat said he does not dwell on it because acting is the only path he knows to grow.
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Rahul Bhat said, “Punished is a strong word. But yes, visibility today is engineered. The Hindi film ecosystem rewards narrative control. PR builds perception. Algorithms reward frequency, not depth. If you don’t participate in that machinery, you move slower. But slowness is not failure. It’s just a different rhythm.”
“My team might say I’m bad at this game. Maybe I am. But I’m an actor, not a player. Give me a script and I’ll act. Don’t ask me to manufacture stories about myself or give motivational gyaan about how great I am. I can’t ‘play’ Rahul Bhat,” he continued. “I read books. I watch cinema. I can talk about those things. But I don’t know how to be fake and present a curated life. I have nothing against people who do it well. I just can’t.”
In the same conversation, Bhat also opened up about preparing for Anurag Kashyap’s "Kennedy" . The actor revealed that his process included extreme physical discipline and prolonged sleep deprivation, which created a strange, restless energy. “It was a tough role to play. I had to shed all vanity. It needed subtraction, not addition. I didn’t sleep properly for months. When you’re sleeping very little and training three to four hours every day, the body fatigues, but it also activates a wired, restless energy. That state can be dangerous for an actor. I had to contain that energy very carefully,” he said.
Rahul Bhat concluded, “'Kennedy' could not explode. He had to brew. The performance was about holding everything in, letting it simmer under the surface. No dramatic outbursts. Just pressure building quietly.”
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