Meet the boy next door from Delhi Belly, Wake Up Sid, India 24/7 aka Rann and Ghajini

by Devansh Patel


Rahul Pendkalkar waves cheerily as he walks into Candies at Bandra for his first ever interview which he is going to give to the media. Like any normal seven year old, he shakes hands nicely and sits down. He is accompanied by his mother and sister who sit along side him. The neat black hair and dark brown eyes are just as you’d expect after seeing him on screen; he’s in a short sleeved maroon shirt and beige shorts, with brown lace ups, neatly knotted. A kid next door. Any door. Almost.

But the thing that sets Rahul apart is his experience in talking grown up stuff with journalists. The answers are eloquent, not too smart or precocious, well considered and very short. For example, when we asked after seeing his cute little picture with Jiah Khan on what was the interaction like with the actress, he said, “Jiah Khan was so good. She let me sit on her lap and loved me lots”. Now that's what we like about the cute boy.


Coming from a lower middle class family, Rahul was interested in acting ever since he saw his father, Praveen, interested in the same profession. But being an advocate, he could not continue his passion. Then came Ghajini, Rahul's first film along side Aamir Khan, Jiah Khan and Asin where he was seen in the last cake cutting scene of the film.

Now that you know Rahul Pendkalkar was in love at first sight with Jiah Khan, what you didn't know was the fact that the original dialogue of Rahul during the final scene was suppose to be recited by another child. But as Aamir Khan saw Rahul repeat the lines which the other child could not grasp pretty well, the actor recommended the cute boy to A.R. Murgadoss who then made Rahul say his first ever dialogue in a Hindi film. After the pack up, Aamir walked up to Rahul and said, “Tu bahut upar jaayega”.


What followed after Ghajini were two big films which Rahul bagged. One of them was the Ranbir Kapoor and Konkana Sen Sharma starer, YRF's 'Wake Up Sid'. Rahul describes his experience on working with Ranbir and the film. The above picture was clicked at the YRF Studio while the shoot of Wake Up Sid was on. Talking about the film, Rahul plays Sanju, Ranbir's neighbour and Ranbir plays the role of a professional photographer who makes a portfolio of his cute neighbour Sanju. According to the kid, he got along very well with Ranbir and recalls his first time when he met the actor. “I was taking a nap when Ranbir came up to me and said Hi. I don't know how he came to know my name but I was very impressed”. What impressed us was the fact that Rahul didn't give away much of the film. A pukka pro we should say! YRF, you listening?


Now this picture story is quite interesting. Rahul's third film was the Aamir Khan productions with Imran Khan and Shehnaz Treasuriwala starer Delhi Belly. The strange coincidence is that Rahul's first assignment for an ad-film (Ambuja Cement) was directed by Abhinay Deo and that's how the director recommended him for Delhi Belly. When asked why didn't his album have his picture clicked with Imran, Rahul gets a bit upset and bursts his anger out, “I don't want to talk about Imran because I don't like him as he didn't click a picture with me”. We totally support Rahul on this one till we find out the other side of the story which his mother reveals, “Rahul is just kidding. He loves posing with the actors for a candid picture but we forgot to get him snapped with Imran”. Speaking a bit about the film, the cutie revealed that Imran plays a mechanic in Delhi Belly. The funny part is that each time, Rahul's on-screen father has to travel on his scooter along with Rahul and his on-screen mother to the mechanic to repair their car because the unfortunate car just cannot reach the final destination – their home. Here for a change, Rahul is all smiles and happy to pose with the producer of the film. Way to go boy!


This one was taken on the sets of Rahul's fourth film, Ram Gopal Varma's India 24/7, previously called Rann. We broke the story of the Rahul being hit by the glass door and how Mr Bachchan rubbed the ice pack on his forehead. Catch this! Way before the accident happened, Rahul was eager to meet the Big B, his icon. He says, “I want to become like Amitabh Bachchan when I grow up. I liked him in Bunty Aur Babli and Bhoothnath”. When Amitji entered the sets, Rahul quickly took his blessings by touching Big B's feet. “Jeete Raho beta”, said Amitabh and he started playing with him. Rahul quotes, “My dream was to work with Amitabh Bachchan and I have achieved that milestone. Now I want to work with the rest, starting from Hrithik Roshan, Salman Khan, Govinda, Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol”. The most shocking line was, “I want to work with Dharmendra too”. The seven year old loved Apne in which all the three Deols were present. Believe it or not, Rahul's next film is with Akshay Kumar which is going to be shot entirely in London. The film is yet untitled. Coming back to the picture, the young actor recalls his best incident from the sets of Rann. “When Ram Gopal Varma made a mistake in the script, Amitabh Bachchan shouted on him and improvised the scene himself. Nobody can be like him. He is the best we have. Thank you Ram Gopal Varma for seeing my Hindustan Times and the Fiat advert”.He adds, "Amitabh Bachchan plays my nana's role in India 24/7. He has called us home because my father in the film, Rajat Kapoor, does not take care of my mother in the film, Simone Singh. Paresh Rawal is my dadu in the film".

Jr Pendkalkar ends this lovely, fresh and candid chat with us by saying, "After Jiah Khan, I love Aishwarya Rai and Katrina Kaif. I want to have a picture clicked with them too". Sooo sweeet!!!