what's cooking?

Documentary filmmaker-turned-model-turned actor Rajeev Khandelwal, who plays the popular heartthrob 'Sujal' opposite Kashish (Aamna Sharief) in the prime time Star Plus soap Kahiin To Hoga, is to make his film debut.

Currently negotiating for a feature film with the Sahara Group, a crossover film with TV 18 and yet another film with a top banner, Rajeev says, "Which is why I am turning down dozens of lucrative TV serial offers. Besides avoiding over-exposure, I also want to reach the zenith of popularity on TV with 'Sujal' who does not get to marry the girl he loves."

Khandelwal apparently has a swooning female fan club of thousands of Indians and Asians sending him emails and letters. "On an average I receive over 400 emails including marriage proposals every week.

Some of my die-hard female fans that visit my sets are so aggressive that I have to bluff them that 'I am already married'. It hardly matters to them. But all this gives me a feeling of insecurity and I wonder whether I deserve all this adulation with just one serial to my credit." Ironically, all this while, Khandelwal, who is in his late twenties, had directed some 35 docu-dramas including one on the Kargil war (where he played the role of a martyr soldier). "Actually I belong to a staunch fauji family and I was considered a black sheep when I opted for showbiz."

Part of Khandelwal's struggle was working as a sales guy, marketing paintings to corporate clients. "A freak audition in Delhi for the Balaji group and a gamble landed me the Sujal role. And as destiny would have it, they dropped the actor originally selected to play the role and cast me instead," smiles Rajeev who has just won the Most Striking Male TV Debut of 2003 Lions International Award. Refusing to employ a bawarchi, the homely Rajiv prefers to "cook my own food, but I wouldn't dare to serve what I have prepared to any of my guests!"