Amol Parashar excited to be working on his own stories
Happy with the trajectory of his career, Sharad Kelkar focuses on doing his best for each project and moving on
Sangeeta Yadav
After becoming popular a Chitwan of the web serie Tripling, actor Amol Parashar is on an experiment spree and plans to develop his own stories on the digital space. Not spilling the beans about what it’s going to be about, the actor says, “Creating something of your own comes with a lot of hard work [but] it is a rewarding experience. I’m also focusing on developing my own stories and have found some great collaborators to work on them. There are a couple of exciting projects coming up.”
The 30-year-old, who started his acting journey with films such as Babloo Happy Hai (2014) and Traffic (2016), is returning to Bollywood after three years with director Alankrita Shrivastava’s Dolly, Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare. Calling it a different experience, Amol says, “I’ve been playing a lot of quirky urban characters recently on the web space, so it was a refreshing change for me to play somebody more rooted and sincere in this film.”
He adds, “I play a young ambitious guy who has moved to the big city to escape the harsh realities back home. He is sincere, honest, and righteous, something that makes him a bit of a misfit in his surroundings.”
For him, sharing the screen space with actor Konkona Sensharma and being directed by Lipstick Under My Burkha director Alankrita Shrivastava, was a very overwhelming but a great learning experience.
“I was very excited but also a bit nervous about working with Alankrita and Konkona. I was a little wary about being overwhelmed on the set with the experience and talent that these two have. But I had so much to learn and absorb. Both of them are passionate and brilliant at what they do, but at the same time very unassuming and real,” Amol shares.
You can sense the happiness in actor Sharad Kelkar’s voice when you talk about his latest project, the web series The Family Man, which opened to rave reviews. With Manoj Bajpayee in the lead, the series was about a middleclass man hiding from his family the fact that he is an onground intelligence officer. Sharad, meanwhile, has been termed by many as the villain in Manoj’s character’s life. That is left unanswered in the end.
Sharad laughs and confirms it will be answered in the next season.
“These are the two questions in my life — Why did Katappa kill Baahubali (Sharad was the Hindi voice for Prabhas in Baahubali franchise) and ‘Lonavla mein kya hua?’ As soon as I enter in the first episode, people who are friends and from the fraternity, sent me about 35-40 messages. I got eight to ten calls as well, asking me, ‘Don’t tell us you are the villain!’ People are speculating about it, have different stories about it. You will come to know about it in the second season,” says the 43-year-old.
On the film front too, Sharad’s career has been going well. He will be seen next in Housefull 4, alongside Akshay Kumar. He says, “A lot of people have heard my voice (in the trailer), so yes, but I can’t reveal much about the film. It’s interesting. Akshay and all are good guys. It’s a fabulous crop of actors, so it was fun.”
Over the years, Sharad has also been a part of films such as Goliyon Ki Raasleela — Ramleela (2013) and Baadshaho (2017).
He’s happy with how things are shaping up, and says, “I’m quite happy. Some [films] tanked. I learnt from them as an actor is that I have to give my 100%, whether it’s a hit or a flop. While making a film itself, we come to know how the film is shaping up... No matter what, you don’t have to be disheartened. At least for me, people said, ‘He’s a good actor’, and an actor waits for this compliment.”
Rishabh Suri