Rudhraksh Jaiswal was just your usual school kid. Apart from studying, he spent most of his time focusing on swimming, and trained to become a state-level swimmer. However, the acting bug bit him quite early in his life. He gave his first audition for a popular soup brand and eventually kept giving auditions for various ads and shows. He started from the bottom and came up the hard way, hustling in and out of audition rooms and recording countless tapes. It almost felt like he was spending more time in audition rooms than his own living room. He managed to bag the role of Sahadeva in the magnum opus, Mahabharata. But once that stint was over, Jaiswal was, once again, looking for more work. He spent more than one and a half years waiting to get his next big break. As much as he liked shows, being in movies was always his ultimate goal, as for any actor. He bagged a few roles in smallbudget Hindi films. But apart from that, he still had a long way to go.

But all said and done, things soon took a different direction for Jaiswal. And in this context, ‘a different direction’ actually means skyrocketed upwards. Jaiswal eventually landed a role that made him the center of a Netflix film, and that too, opposite Chris Hemsworth. Jaiswal will be seen in Extraction (formerly called Dhaka), Netflix’s next big-budget action drama directed by Sam Hargrave and written by one-half of the Russo Brothers, Joe Russo. Apart from Jaiswal, other well-known Indian names including Randeep Hooda and Manoj Bajpayee, are also part of the film.

Jaiswal still remembers the first time he met Hemsworth. “We were shooting in Ahmedabad. I was getting my hair done, and out of nowhere, Chris sir emerged. I sprung out of my chair and went up to him and introduced myself, quite shyly, actually. He greeted me with a smile and replied with a warm “What’s up, mate?” I was completely star-struck. I shared how I was a huge fan of the Avengers and even recited his iconic dialogues from the film,” he says. Jaiswal has proudly been posting about Hemsworth and him bonding on the sets. Everyone around him was getting regular updates about what it was like working with the star. There are many posts of them just hanging out on the sets, reciting some Bollywood dialogues,etc. Jaiswal and Hemsworth’s professional relationship soon turned to friendship. They were hanging out after shoots, played sports together and even started working out together. Who better to train you than one of the fittest men on the planet? Apart from being a friend, Hemsworth soon grew to become a mentor and teacher to Jaiswal. “On the sets, he gave me a lot of tips and guided me through everything. What to do, what not to do, how I could improve, etc. And whatever he’s said has stayed with me,” said Jaiswal.

https://youtu.be/WRknk7ZImEg

As much as he remembers his first day with Hemsworth, he also remembers his last day with because of a very special incident. He recalls,“On the last day of the shoot, I went to hug him. I then bent down and touched his feet. He was so surprised and asked me what I was doing. I told him that this was a way of giving respect and to everyone’s surprise, he bent down and touched my feet and pulled me into a tight bear hug. His humility really has no bounds.” Apart from Extraction, Jaiswal has a few other projects he’s already worked on and some in the pipeline. He’s already built an impressive portfolio and has proved his acting chops on several occasions. The action-drama will help put him in the spotlight and be another feather in his cap. There’s no doubt that he still has a long way to go, but Extraction has surely given him an impressive headstart.