Gone are the days when people used to typecast you: Sharad

After over 14 years of playing protagonists on TV, Sharad Malhotra broke his positive on screen image, and explored the negative zone. He is glad that the risk paid off. The actor says he is not afraid of being typecast.

“I played a positive role in all these years and suddenly, played a negative character, so nobody typecasted me. Luckily, I had somebody who trusted me and offered me the role of a villain,” Malhotra says.

“Gone are the days when people used to typecast you. It used to happen back in the day when people had a typical mentality,” he adds.

Reflecting on the changes, the actor continues, “Most of the heroes want to try different shades and characters. As an actor, you are supposed to play different roles, and that is my job. If I am asked to play a villain, I will make sure that the villain is as interesting as the hero.”

Malhotra’s talent first got noticed through a talent hunt show in 2004, and he then went to on do popular shows such as Banoo Main Teri Dulhan, Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap and Kasam Tere Pyaar Ki. Over the years, Malhotra has witnessed the evolution of small screen, which makes him discredit the statement that television is regressive. “There is so much happening on television, who would call that regressive? I know that television is called the idiot box, but it is probably the smartest box around,” he says.

Breaking down his thoughts, Malhotra adds, “Television today is massive. There are people I know, who don’t want to do films and they want to be on TV because it is everywhere.”

Having said that, Malhotra feels there are some shows which need to catch up with the changing tunes. “Out of the 100%, I think there would be 10 or 20% which could not be as developed in terms of the content. But I would not say regressive as it is a very strong word,” he ends.

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MALHOTRA, SHARAD Actor