The highly anticipated film Kennedy, directed by Anurag Kashyap, starring Rahul Bhat has released on OTT after earning global acclaim at Cannes 2023 and multiple international film festivals. Now feels like the right moment to revisit the characters that led Rahul Bhat here. Not roles but characters. Because Bhat doesn’t play parts; he inhabits inner lives.
A festival favourite and one of Indian cinema’s most selective actors yet performance driver actor, Rahul Bhat has built a filmography defined by psychological depth, moral ambiguity, and lived-in realism. Each character he’s chosen adds a new layer to his evolving screen persona.
Here’s a closer look at the men he’s portrayed, flawed, conflicted, powerful, and deeply human.
Ugly: The Struggling Actor Trapped by Failure
In Anurag Kashyap’s brutally honest Ugly, Rahul Bhat played a struggling actor whose professional failures bleed into his personal life. His character is insecure, impulsive, ego-driven, and constantly desperate for validation, a man whose ambitions far outweigh his circumstances.
What made the performance stand out was its uncomfortable honesty. Bhat didn’t romanticise the struggling artist; instead, he exposed the bitterness, jealousy, and emotional volatility that comes with rejection. It was a deeply unsettling portrayal because it felt too real, making audiences confront the darker side of ambition and masculinity.
Black Warrant: DSP Tomar, The Authority Within the Chaos
In Black Warrant, Rahul Bhat portrayed DSP Tomar, a commanding officer in Tihar Jail, a mentor figure to his juniors and a man who understands power, discipline, and survival within an unforgiving system.
His performance balanced authority with quiet restraint. Tomar isn’t loud or flamboyant; his power lies in his presence. Bhat brought a layered calm to the character, someone who has seen too much, knows when to speak, and when silence is more effective. It was a masterclass in controlled intensity, showing how leadership in such spaces is as much psychological as it is positional.
Union Leader: The Ideologue Torn Between Power and Responsibility
In Union Leader, Bhat stepped into the role of a man driven by ideology and ambition, navigating the morally grey spaces of labour politics. A film lauded as a significant portrayal of labor union struggles. He plays a supervisor at a chemical factory in Gujarat who becomes the voice for colleagues facing fatal health conditions due to poor working conditions, earning praise for his performance. His character isn’t portrayed as a clean hero or a villain, but as someone shaped by circumstance, pressure, and the weight of collective responsibility.
Heena: The Man Defined by Quiet Emotional Weight
Heena allowed Rahul Bhat to explore emotional subtlety. His character operates in silences, pauses, and restrained expressions rather than dramatic outbursts. There’s a gentleness to the performance a man shaped by love, loss, and longing.
What stood out was how little he needed to say. Bhat’s control over micro-expressions and body language made the character deeply intimate, proving his strength in internalised storytelling. Heena was one of the most successful shows is 2000s and Bhat became a big star, however, he then moved to the world of niche cinema where substance was demanded.
Article 375: A Man Confronting Moral Complexity
In Article 375, Rahul Bhat portrayed a character navigating difficult ethical terrain, where right and wrong are never clearly defined. Rahul Bhat plays the lead role of Rohan Ravi Khurana, a celebrated Bollywood director. His performance was grounded, measured, and stripped of theatrics allowing the subject matter to breathe without manipulation.
The character reflected Bhat’s growing interest in roles that challenge societal structures and legal frameworks, while remaining rooted in human emotion rather than ideology.
Doobara: Vulnerability Beneath Emotional Turbulence
In Doobara, Bhat explored emotional fragility beneath a layered exterior. His character Vikas Awasthi oscillates between strength and vulnerability, allowing audiences to witness a man struggling with inner conflict and unresolved emotions.
The performance added another shade to his repertoire softer, more introspective, yet still intense. It reaffirmed his ability to adapt without losing his signature depth.
Kennedy: The Culmination
Rahul Bhat has received widespread critical acclaim for his performance in Anurag Kashyap’s Kennedy, with the film earning a 7-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival. Critics and audiences praised his portrayal of the “emotionally fractured” assassin, describing his work as a career-defining performance in a gritty neo-noir role.
Rahul Bhat isn’t chasing iconic roles. He’s creating iconic characters one unsettling, unforgettable performance at a time.