First of Many: Sharad Kelkar revisits Aakrosh

Sharad has played memorable parts on the big screen too, including Ram-Leela, Mohenjo Daro, Irada, Bhoomi, Tanhaji, Laxmii, Darbaan and the recent release Bhuj, apart from several Marathi and Telugu films. He became a household name with TV shows Kuch Toh Log Kahenge, Saat Phere, Sinndoor Tere Naam Ka, Agent Raghav and Koi Laut Ke Aaya Hai.

Sharad Kelkar might have found a strong footing in the industry, even as his Arvind continues to remain an integral part of The Family Man. To box Sharad’s most popular projects would be difficult. The man who continues to give us interesting characters, had an interesting start to his acting journey. Here’s how it all began for him.

What was your first acting project? How did the project come to you?

I started with ad films in 2002. I used to stammer a lot, so modelling is fine, saying one line is fine because you do that after a lot of practice. But when it is about acting in a TV show or a film, it’s a different ballgame all together. I remember in 2003, I was signed for a Zee TV show. I wasn’t the lead but I was playing a very important character. One or two days passed by easily but on the fifth day, I got a huge one-and-a-half-page dialogue. Either I was speaking very fast, or there wasn’t clarity or I was stammering. My director was patient enough to give me 30 retakes. Ultimately, he called me and asked what’s the issue. I said I won’t be able to do it and he should take someone else. He also understood that I was being honest. Finally, I was replaced on this show.

Later, in 2004, Nimbus was producing a show for DD1 called Aakrosh. Mamta Patnaik was with UTV. They finalised me for one show as a lead, which didn’t happen. Then Mamta joined Nimbus Productions and there, she called me for this show. Credit goes to her also for giving me my first break.

It was a thriller, finite series. It ran for 3-4 months. That was my first job. Coming from a small town, from not a very wealthy background, it was a great opportunity. I was very happy. My journey started with correcting my stammering issue. I also met my wife Keerti there. That shows is very important to me. It was my first on air TV show and I met my wife there.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Sharad Kelkar (@sharadkelkar)

What do you remember of your first day on set?

It’s location was at a studio in Mumbai. My character’s name was Arjun Kulkarni. He was a cop. I went on the set and fought for the clothes on the first day because they weren’t fitting me. I said this isn’t cop uniform. It should look sleek. I went on set at 9 am, and my first shot came next morning at 4 am. I was sitting whole day and whole of night with four other actors. It was a great learning experience that to achieve something, you have to be patient.

Were you nervous?

I was definitely nervous about my dialogue and performance. But the team supported me. It was my everyday struggle to say my lines with fluency. You can’t get over with stammering in one day. It is a problem that you need to work on. It takes a lot of time. The problem is still there. If I become angry or get into an argument, I’ll start stammering.

How was the rapport with your co-stars when you got to meet or work with them again later?

There was Manasi Salvi, Sanjay Batra, Sachit Patil, Amrapali. There were some Marathi actors also. It had a huge star cast. We are still friends, apart from Manasi.

Also Read | First of Many: Gajraj Rao | Vivek Oberoi | Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub | Rajpal Yadav | Rajeev Khandelwal | Govind Namdev | Neena Gupta | Pankaj Tripathi | Satish Kaushik | Mohit Raina | Shahid Kapoor | Anang Desai | Jimmy Sheirgill | Tabu | Harsh Chhaya | Gaurav Gera | Saurabh Shukla | Deepak Dobriyal | Seema Pahwa | Annup Sonii | Sayantani Ghosh | Annu Kapoor | Ajay Devgn | Vishal Malhotra | Rahul Khanna | Ashutosh Rana | Jaaved Jaaferi | Ashwath Bhatt | Varun Badola | Renuka Shahane | Taapsee Pannu | Manoj Bajpayee | Milind Soman | Rajkummar Rao | Akhilendra Mishra | Rohit Roy | Suchitra Pillai | Gulshan Grover | Abhay Deol | Ashwini Kalsekar | Adil Hussain | Shweta Tiwari | Purab Kohli | Mita Vasisht | Vipin Sharma | Divya Dutta | Jaideep Ahlawat | Archana Puran Singh | Daya Shankar Pandey | Hina Khan | Rajesh Tailang | Urvashi Dholakia | Manish Chaudhari | Sheeba Chadha | Karanvir Bohra | Bhairavi Raichura | Pratik Gandhi | Konkona Sen Sharma | Gurmeet Choudhary | Lakshmi Manchu | Zakir Hussain | Nimrat Kaur | Hiten Tejwani | Ayesha Raza Mishra | Ali Fazal | Riya Sen | Rakesh Bedi | Samir Kochhar | Shekhar Suman | Piyush Mishra | Neelu Vaghela | Sumeet Vyas | Ayub Khan | Cyrus Sahukar | Vindu Dara Singh | Karan Singh Grover | Amrita Puri | Arjun Mathur | Natasha Rastogi | Yashpal Sharma | Rimi Sen | Vaishnavi MacDonald | Arjun Bijlani | Kritika Karma | Vikas Kumar | Delnaaz Irani | Sharib Hashmi | Jugal Hansraj | Sanjay Mishra | Sushant Singh | Sarika Singh | Darshan Kumaar | Manoj Pahwa 

If given a chance to go back to your debut role, what would you like to change or do better?

I’ll play it differently now. I didn’t know the ABCD of acting that time. I had never done theatre or acting workshops. I don’t know what I’ll do now, but I’ll definitely do it little better now.

One actor or film that inspired you to become an actor?

I think if you ask anyone of my age, they’ll take Amitabh Bachchan’s name. He was our favourite and I’ve watched all his films. He was the actor for us, he still is. He is our idol and I just love him.