Rafiq Batcha

Actor, Producer and Screenwriter

Los Angeles, California

Member Since:
December 2013

Last online:
> 2 weeks ago

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About Rafiq

Rafiq is an actor/producer/writer based in Los Angeles.

He was born in Mumbai, India, the home of Bollywood. So it was inevitable that the melodramatic acting bug would've bitten him early. He spent his schooldays in Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania, where he grew up on a steady diet of cassava, science fiction stories from the British Council Library, and grainy VHS tapes of the latest Bollywood and Hollywood movies. It was also here that he discovered a knack for acting and break-dancing (and in one misguided instance, performing magic) and was soon performing on-stage pretty much every few months. It was also during his school years that he ended up performing the role of Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" 3 separate times - in elementary school, middle school, and high school. Something about "demanding his pound of flesh" aligned with his essence.

However, his parents and teachers discovered his aptitude for math and science, and so, as a good Indian boy, he studied engineering and found himself in Boston, working as an engineer.

But that melodramatic acting bug never left him and soon, he was doing plays and taking acting classes to mellow his...melodramaticity? Melodramaness? Anyway, as fate would have it, he continued to doggedly pursue his corporate career and joined the full-time MBA program at Emory University's Goizueta Business School. It was while here that he took his first on-camera acting class at YourAct Studios in Decatur, GA. He loved the class. He was moved enough to write and direct the business school's first entry int the Campus Moviefest, called "MBA Interview Chronicles". He also shot and acted in another short film for the MBA Orientation program, an Apprentice spoof. He felt so alive doing all this that he decided to perform in the business school's annual coffeehouse, dancing "Stayin' Alive". He felt even more alive.

The feeling of being so alive, so in the zone, was so strange and unexpected that he chalked it to a curious side-effect of his pollen allergy medications. He then started another corporate job after finishing his MBA. But as fate would inexorably have it, he performed in two plays the same year - one a remake of "Fiddler on the Roof", where he played, Perchik, the Revolutionary, and the other, a Hindi play called "Badalte Rishtey", where he played a casanova with a bad temper. Both plays did very well amongst the Metro Atlanta South Asian community and Rafiq's performances were very well received. And as a bonus, he also won the second place in the Atlanta Desi Idol Dance Competition that year!

The Flame of Acting was now fully lit and burning. Even raging.

Rafiq soon teamed up with writer/director, Atlanta Nagendra, to produce, co-write and star in Atlanta's first Hindi language feature film, "Mumbhai Connection" (trailer), which was released theatrically in India and sold to several different platforms and satellite channels.
He has since then appeared on various TV shows and feature films.

He has one driving mantra: "Do what you love and love what you do, and worry not about the results". I guess when you come from a culture with 4000 years of history, there are some things you just know :)

Unique traits: Sci-fi lover. Experience having taken a feature film from concept to consumers in theaters in India, strong mix of business, technical and creative skills, good Bollywood and Hollywood sensibiilties

Gender:
Male

Height:
5' 9"

Weight:
165

Body type:
Athletic

Hair:
Short

Hair color:
Black

Eyes:
Brown

Ethnicity:
Indian/South Asian

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Credits

Swamp Murders (2016)
Television (Crime) Actor Moss-covered trees, dead-end trails, creaky docks and mangrove forests are the ominous backdrops for the murkiest of mysteries.
Game of Silence (2016)
Television (Drama) Actor A rising attorney finds his perfectly crafted life threatened when his long-lost childhood friends threaten to expose a dark secret from their past.
BrownTown (2015)
Television (Short and Comedy) Actor Add a Plot »
Ivide (2015)
Film (Crime and Drama) Casting director Ivide is a crime-drama starring Prithviraj Sukumaran who plays an investigation officer named Varun Blake. Nivin Pauly who is Krish Hebbar, a CIO of a leading Techie company. A string of incidents in Atlanta, sets the pace of the film as the life of Varun and Krish gets entangled in the midst of it.
Halt and Catch Fire (2014)
Television (Drama) Actor Set in the early 1980s, this series dramatizes the personal computing boom through the eyes of a visionary, an engineer and a prodigy whose innovations directly confront the corporate behemoths of the time. Their personal and professional partnership will be challenged by greed and ego while charting the changing culture in Texas' Silicon Prairie. Written by AMC
Bus, Stop!!! (2014)
Film (Short, Comedy and Drama) Actor Two strangers meet at a bus stop and must rely on each other when the bus never comes.
Mumbhai Connection (2014)
Film by Rafiki Media Faisal
EBSCO Recruiting Video (2014)
Industrial by EBSCO Inc. IT Office Worker
Home2 Suites by HIlton (2014)
Commercial by Forever Studios Guest
Scana Energy (2014)
Commercial by Pogo Pictures Snapping Hands
The Bleeding (2013)
Film (Short, Comedy, Horror and Romance) Actor A lovelorn file clerk tries to keep a self-inflicted paper cut from ruining his life.
Golden (2013)
Television by FlowWorks Productions Simon Yadav
Hell Hole (2013)
Film by Dead Head Films Ted
UPS (2013)
Industrial by Creativision Restaurant Owner
Drop Dead Diva (2012)
Television (Comedy and Drama) Actor Deb, a shallow model's sudden demise results in her being reincarnated as Jane, a plus size lawyer with astonishing intelligence. As Deb sees life through Jane's eyes, she realizes it doesn't matter how big you are, just how you accept it and know you're beautiful no matter what people say.
Anatomy of Love (2012)
Film by Way-Younge LLC Jerry
Godamsterdam (2012)
Internet by Kramerstein Productions Dr. Doqdar
Drop Dead Diva Ep 405 (2012)
Television by Lifetime Network Security Guard #1
Randstad (2012)
Print by Studio Burns Office Worker
InterContinental Hotels Group (2012)
Industrial by Wits End Productions Assistant Manager
Two Naked Men Making a Sandwich (2011)
Television (Comedy) Actor Each week two naked men make one delicious sandwich.
Raekwon Music Video (Catalina) (2011)
Music by Dr. Dre Muhammad the Jeweller
Achieve MasterCard (2011)
Commercial by 2-G Inc Store Clerk
McKesson New Media (2011)
Print by MckKesson Inc. Pharmacist
The Anatomy of Love (2010)
Film (Comedy, Drama and Romance) Actor Cassious is a hopelessly romantic college student seeking to find love and companionship with his best friend Jenesis. Jenesis is an emotionally scarred college girl who has outspokenly lost her faith in true love. Cassious is careful to not to spill his true feelings knowing her feelings regarding love and their friendship. Jenesis expresses her stern opinions of love in one of her college courses and winds up with a special assignment. Jenesis is challenged by her professor to document the opinions of at least 10 of her peers on the question "What is love?". Once she has documented her peers she is then to document her opinion after listening to her peers to see if her idea has changed. As Jenesis has done her whole life, she depends on Cassious to help her complete her learning and love. Cassious gets ribbed by his friends for following Jenesis around constantly and being her errand boy as she jumps from guy to guy and dismissed Cassious' obvious feelings. Cassious finally finds it... Written by Mason Younge
Volvo Heavy Equipment (2010)
Print by Volvo Inc Customer
Fiddler on the Roof (2007)
Theater by Saakaar Perchik
Orange (2006)
Video (Short and Drama) Producer Reverberations from a bomb blast in the City tests the hitherto perfect relationship between Kate and Hameed. A series of events following that blast forces Kate to confront the terrible question: Does Hameed have a sinister link to this attack? Written by Anonymous
Allah Calling (2006)
Film (Short and Drama) Editor In a world post 911, not everything we assume we saw is really what it is. We need to look beyond our deep prejudices in order to really see things as they are. This films breaks those deep seated fears and prejudices and appreciates the beauty of the constitution of the United States of America. Written by Shahid Parvez Sayed
Badalte Rishtey (2006)
Theater by Khoobsurat Productions Shaan
Halt and Catch Fire Ep 109 (2002)
Television by AMC Darren