Mumbai Dec 1 (IANS) Bollywood actor Rajkummar Rao, on December 1, was seen speaking at the CII Big Picture Summit 2025, in a session titled ‘The AI era of bridging creativity and commerce’, where the actor spoke his heart out on missing seeing good actors on screen. He also lauded a few filmmakers for making movies with all their heart.

Rajkummar also spoke about how, as an actor, it doesn’t make any difference to him whether he is working for streaming platforms or movies. Rao, while expressing his thoughts, said, ‘I am still learning. It’s actually a lot like theatres. Sometimes a very average theatre artist works incredibly well on streaming platforms, and you wonder, ‘Really?!’ This person did so well in a genuinely good film, and yet nobody talks about that film. And you’re left thinking, what’s happening? It feels just like a theatre.”

He added, “I think there are a lot of algorithms and a lot of data and analysis involved, which we, as creative people, don’t fully understand. I am pretty sure when Coppola made ‘The Godfather’, or when Hrishikesh Mukherjee or Manmohan Desai made films back then, they didn’t think about target audiences or market segmentation. They belonged to a different era. They simply wanted to tell their stories.”

He elaborated, “So when I say I am still learning, what I really mean is, I am missing that. We have become too data-based. We are not telling stories from the heart anymore.” Lauding Rishabh Shetty for making Kantara, Rajkummar said, “That’s what I believe Rishabh Shetty did so wonderfully in Karnataka. He didn’t think, “I should make an exotic film. He just told his story with full conviction, made a beautiful film, and hit it out of the park.”

The actor said, “As a creative person, as an actor, I miss that. I really miss it. I miss seeing good actors on screen, whether in streaming or in theatres. And yes, I feel there is much more to storytelling when it comes straight from the heart.”

Rajkummar recently won the Filmfare Award for his movie Srikanth. On the personal front, Rajkummar Rao and wife Patralekhaa welcomed a baby girl in November, on their anniversary.

–IANS

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