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Little did he know then that he would not only make a mark in the Chinese film industry one day but become so successful and well known in China that he would find a mention in school textbooks, his story included in some syllabuses as an inspirational rags-to-riches tale.
Eighteen years after he reached China to work as a waiter in a restaurant, English textbooks for class 7 students in schools of Xi’an city in Shanxi Province have a section on him.
Dev’s long struggle: Menial jobs in Delhi to waiter in China
Dev, who has made it big in the Chinese film industry, was born into a farmer family in Tehri Garhwal and learned karate in India. On the lookout for an opportunity to go to China for further training, Raturi did menial jobs in Delhi for a decade to support his family back home before managing to get a job as a waiter in an Indian restaurant in Shenzhen, China, in 2005.
“While working as a waiter in the restaurant for a monthly salary of Rs 10,000, I gained proficiency in Mandarin. My dream of getting trained in martial arts kept me up at night. However, my hopes were shattered after the locals there told me that for further training I need to go to the Shaolin Temple, a renowned monastic institution recognised as the birthplace of Chan Buddhism and the cradle of Shaolin Kung Fu, which I couldn’t afford,” said Raturi, a class 12 dropout.
He added, “I had no option but to persevere. I worked hard for the next seven years and rose to the rank of manager at a high-end restaurant. In 2013, I managed to open my own restaurant, Red Fort, in Xi’an. I’ve based it on India’s rich cultural heritage.”
As luck would have it, Raturi met a Chinese director who had come to eat at his place one day in 2017. He was offered a small role in a TV series named SWAT. It worked. Since then, he’s acted in over 35 Chinese films and TV serials, including popular ones like ‘My Roommate is a Detective’ in which he has a prominent role. Raturi owns eight restaurants in China today.
“My work in Chinese cinema helped me become a popular face. I have received immense love from locals who helped me during the Covid-19 pandemic. They have adopted me as their own,” said Raturi who lives in Xi’an with his wife Anjali and two sons, Arav, 11, and nine-year-old Arnav. But Raturi’s native Uttarakhand remains close to his heart. He has brought over close to 150 unemployed men from his village to China, giving them jobs and opportunities. One of his close friends from his Delhi days, Manoj Rawat said, “Of his total staff of 70, around 40 are from Uttarakhand and the remaining are Chinese.”
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