Mayuraa Raghavendra: Sandalwood on his mind!

He’s been entertaining Bengalureans with his voice for nearly a decade, and now, he’s all set to don a new avatar. Meet radio jockey-turned-movie director Mayuraa Raghavendra aka RJ Mayur, who’s gearing up to direct Sandalwood beauty Rachita Ram in his first feature film. In a tête-à-tête with us, Mayur gets candid about his journey from radio to cinema, his admiration for Crazy Star Ravichandran and more…

Talking about his tryst with films, he says, “Four years ago, I met actress Rachita Ram and soon, we became good friends. Earlier this year, I told her that I was planning to direct a short film and had a script ready.

She offered to produce it and sent me the full money a day before the shoot. The film, called Rishabhapriya, was launched on YouTube on Sunday,” he reveals. Mayur’s short film even went on to have a paid premier show at a cinema hall. But the RJ’s ultimate goal was to make a feature film. “I thought I’ll take around a year to do it. Strangely, I had a dream one day and the next morning, I woke up and started writing a script. By the end of the day, I was ready with a murder mystery,” he shares.

Soon, Mayur found himself moving at a pace which was quicker than expected. “I narrated the story to Stoned Monkey Entertainment and they were ready to invest in it, but wanted me to start the project by the end of October. “ That’s when he had a talk with Rachita and told her that he had only her in mind for the lead role. The actress, he reveals will be playing an undercover cop, with the character being similar to that of Rani Mukerji’s in Mardaani. “We have a title that will be revealed in January.  It’s something that may lead to controversies and most people who’ve heard it haven’t approved of it!” says Mayur, who will also be acting in the flick.

Coming back to his career, the man of many talents reveals that he had to quit his full-time radio job to focus on his movie. “I did my mechanical engineering and was getting ready to do a masters in Robotics, but unfortunately, I lost my father, so I had to join a software company. However, I lost my job due to recession. One fine day, I sent my voice samples to radio stations and got an internship with a station where I was mentored by Darius Sunawala. Later, I moved onto another station where I had my own show - Unplugged with Mayur, which was on air for 250 weeks,” he reminisces. While he was producer for a show that was hosted by actor Ravichandran, Mayur’s life changed. Having worked with the star for more than a year, he got inspired to venture into cinema. “I’d like to work as an assistant to Mani Ratnam or Gautham Vasudev Menon — they’re my idols,” he adds.