Guess who Sharad asks before taking up a project?

Actor Sharad Kelkar has completed 15 years as an actor. But he doesn’t decide his projects alone. A rule that he has been following for sometime now involves discussions with his wife Keerti, who is an actor herself, before committing to a project.

Sharad says, “I always ask my wife. I narrate each and every story to her, whether it’s good, bad or worse. I go home, and say, ‘Baby, I have got two scripts today. Should I do it?’. And she says ‘Do this, don’t do this.’ For Baahubali (in which Sharad dubbed in Hindi for Prabhas’ role) and The Family Man too, I asked her whether I should do it or not”

The 43-year old also believes in meeting every script-writer personally for narration. “There might be (people) who think, ‘Bekaar hai’, but I feel, writer ne mehnat ki hai. For me, a writer is the biggest person. Woh apne conviction se kuchh likhta hai. In my career, I have decided that I’ll give him time to narrate to me the story,” says Sharad, who was seen recently in Housefull 4 alongside Akshay Kumar.

Sharad and Keerti are busy professionals, and they have a five-year-old daughter Kesha. So, how are they raising her? She’s too young right now. She has the liberty to do whatever she wants to do. We don’t talk about acting or anything with her, we don’t even talk about our shoots in front of her. We will keep her out of that till she is 10 or 12 years old.”

Kesha’s parents ensure that she participates in painting and other creative endeavours. “We don’t impose anything on her. She doesn’t watch my work. She has hardly seen anything. She has heard about Baahubali. When this film is aired on television, she says, ‘Papa, it’s your voice.’ She might feel superior among her peers (because of her parents’ celebrity status), and we don’t want that. We want her to be a normal kid,” he concludes.

I narrate each and every story to her, whether it’s good, bad or worse.

SHARAD KELKAR

ACTOR