People often identify me with my onscreen

For the last 14 years, Rajeev Parameshwar’s face has been an evergreen, handsome presence on the mini screen. Be it his likeable characters or those with shades of grey, the performer always makes sure he leaves an impact on the audience minds. With two primetime TV serials and a soon-to-be-released Kasthuriraja film, Rajeev is a busy man. The actor speaks to us about his serials, film aspirations and more:
Radheyan and Hari Both my serials — Snehajalakam and Ente Pennu — are aired at the same time, and the feedback I get are often a mix of both.In Snehajalakam, I play a smart businessman named Hari, who has no great academic record. It discusses more of family issues and is about how parents should always be watchful of their kids as they grow up. It has reached about 60 episodes and I am glad the viewers have been responding to it positively. In Ente Pennu I am a software engineer named Radheyan, who works in the US. It is about friendships and the sacrifices it trigger, and my personality is quite different from that of Hari.
When viewers consider characters as real People often identify me with my on-screen persona. My character in the popular serial Ente Manasaputhri had a few distasteful streaks and was featured as someone who marries the negative character, Glory, despite having feelings for the good girl Sophie. Once while shooting in a hospital in Trivandrum, a glucose bottle was thrown at me while having lunch. I was surprised to learn that it was hurled by a nurse who worked there, in protest against my decision in the serial (laughs). I asked why she is upset for the character’s behaviour, and she just turned her face away angrily and walked off!
Having said that, there have been beautiful and memorable instances too. I acted as a mentally retarded Appu in certain sequences of the popular serial Kavyanjali, which was aired years ago. Once while visiting a temple, a family came up to me requesting whether I would mind meeting their son, who is waiting in the car. Though perplexed, I went with them and inside the car, I saw someone just like Appu! I was quite moved when they said he loves watching me in Kavyanjali and they wish he too got better gradually, like my character did. Even now, I am in touch with them.
When the acting bug crawled in I was not into arts at all as a student, but the bug got into me sometime after my graduation. I was in Mumbai and chanced upon a newspaper ad looking for models. I went and met them and they insisted on me getting a portfolio shot with them. I also showed up at Churchgate the next day as they had asked, for an ad shoot. I met Bollywood star Madhavan on the set; at that time he was a small screen star. He too was waiting for the shoot and we moved together to another location as advised by the team coordinator. It was the ad for a watch brand and sadly, I got only a blink-and-miss role. I was quite disappointed. But as luck would have it, the same portfolio grabbed me chances. Some of my initial assignments were with actresses like Vidya Balan, Poornima Indrajith and Lena, who were quite active in the modelling circuit then.
Stepping into serials through films I was cast as Samyukta Varma’s brother in Harikumar’s Swayamvara Panthal and it was a small role. There was a schedule break in the shoot, during which I got a job in Dubai. Though many in my family asked me to take it up, I stayed back as I was told there are more sequences to be shot with me in the film. However, there was hardly anything at the end and it really made my family and me quite upset. Nevertheless, it’s a photo taken on the film’s set that paved my way into my first telefilm, Kaanappurangal, in which Reenu Mathews was my pair.
I have been part of about 10 serials so far, and a handful of good films too, both in Malayalam and Tamil. My next is Kaasu, Thuttu, Panam, a Tamil film by Kasthuriraja, in which I play a negative role.