Meet Rishabh Jaiswal: The Varanasi Boy Making It Big in Mumbai Film Industry

In a city that rarely pauses to celebrate its own until they become impossible to ignore, Rishabh Jaiswal’s message landed with quiet force. The 25-year-old actor, currently navigating the next phase of his television career in Mumbai, reached out recently to local media with a simple request: don’t forget the ones who leave Banaras to chase something bigger.

Born and raised in Varanasi, Rishabh studied at Dalimss Sunbeam Sigra. Those who knew him in school remember a boy who threw himself into cultural programmes and stage performances long before anyone outside the school gates had heard his name. After finishing school he enrolled at Banaras Hindu University for a commerce degree, but the pull of performance never really left. He spent time with the local theatre group Team Geshe Jampa, taking on roles that included the lead in a production called 'Mr Gyaso'. Those early stage experiences, he has said, taught him more about presence and timing than any formal acting class later could.

Like many young people from smaller cities, Rishabh moved to Mumbai with more determination than contacts. He began with modelling and fashion content, appeared in a string of music videos, and then took the risk of reality television. In 2022 he entered 'Splitsvilla' Season 14. The stay was short, but the exposure mattered. The following year he found himself on 'Roadies', this time in Rhea Chakraborty’s gang. Rhea later spoke about him in interviews, recalling a good-looking, hungry youngster who wanted films and was unsure whether television was worth his time. She advised him to take whatever work came and let the performances do the talking. He listened.

What followed was a steady climb through supporting roles. A brief appearance in 'Anupamaa' led to work in 'Kundali Bhagya'. Then came the role that gave him real visibility: Krish Bansal in 'Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai'. For more than two years Rishabh played the character through its lighter and darker turns, earning appreciation for the range he brought to a long-running daily soap. In April this year he walked away from the show. In interviews since, he has been measured about the decision. The character had given him a great deal, he said, but remaining only for security felt like standing still. He wanted the discomfort of new challenges.

These days Rishabh is selective about what comes next. He has been linked with appearances around the comedy-cooking format 'Laughter Chefs', and continues to keep a visible presence on social media under the handle that carries his name. Yet in his note to Banaras media he returned to something more personal. He is still, he wrote, a boy from this city who studied at Dalimss Sunbeam School, worked his way into an industry that rarely looks this far inland, and hopes the place he comes from will notice when one of its own manages to stay standing.

There is no dramatic overnight success story here. What exists instead is a familiar but still uncommon trajectory: a student from a Varanasi school who treated theatre as serious practice, treated rejection as information, and kept showing up in Mumbai long enough for the work to start speaking for itself. For a city that produces more talent than it often remembers to claim, Rishabh Jaiswal’s trajectory is worth recording while it is still unfolding.