HIGH INTENSITY
When he stripped to the waist on stage in Seascape with Sharks and Dancer, you could hear gasps of delight from the gaggles of teenagers who packed the theatre. And when he dropped his pants in English, August for an eyeful of rebel derriere, it was the talk of the town. But Rahul Bose is hardly your average sex symbol, body or not. At a few inches over 5 ft you don't go far unless you've got what Bose does, the working of a first-rate actor and a face that reflects his intensity.

Versatile as they come, Bose represents the restless new brat pack: people who grab life with both hands and are always on the lookout for new challenges, mostly in unusual films but also in theatre and TV when they come, a sort of souped up neo-Naseeruddin Shah. "You've got to listen to your inner voice," he says. Listen, because he has. He started out in advertising but quit for a role in Dev Benegal's acid English, August where he portrayed a novice civil servant in the boondocks. Then a few TV serials, the lead in the funky Bombay Boys and most recently Benegal's dark Split Wide Open. Bose is wide open to anything if it's good and interesting. "The sky's the limit," he says. With him, it doesn't sound like a clich.