Sharad Kelkar reveals biggest stumbling block to his success
Actor Sharad Kelkar, who lent his voice for Prabhas in Baahubali, reveals his biggest stumbling block to success
Recently having again captured audiences’ attention as Arvind in the second season of The Family Man, actor Sharad Kelkar has come a long way from his TV actor days to playing memorable roles in films such as the 2013-film Goliyon Ki Leela Raasleela Ram Leela, 2016-film Mohenjo Daro and the 2020-films Laxmii and Tanhaji: The Unsung Hero. What not many know is that success to this actor, who’d lent his voice for Prabhas for the hit Baahubali series, came after many years of being bullied for a bad stammer he had.
Besides his latest release Bhuj: The Pride of India, Sharad has a long list of films waiting release in 2021, including a solo lead role in Deja Vu, a psychological thriller about a man experiencing certain incidents every day. He is also set to debut in the Southern sector with the Tamil film Ayalaan.
The actor opens up with Deccan Chronicle in a candid chat.
Excerpts from the interview
Q
Would you want to dub for any more of Prabhas’ films?
[Chuckles] Now Prabhas dubs for himself. He is dubbing for Radhe Shyam also.
Q Not many know you used to have a huge stammering problem. Would you tell us about that?
Yes, I had stammering hiccups, which was a huge hindrance in my life. Even today, there are a few words I cannot pronounce.
But my wife, who was also involved in theatres, helped me a lot during those days because I’d not have got work on the basis of my look and physique also. In fact, initially, I was even replaced as I could not say my dialogues properly.
While some say that trying to speak with marbles in your mouth can help one overcome stammering, for me proper breathing is what helped me speak well. In fact, today, I’ll challenge any doctors who may say otherwise, but I have seen that to overcome stammering breath control is a must.
Q So how did you manage to solve you stammering problem?
It’ll sound clichéd but I followed Bachchan Saab. Not many have noticed that during his dialogue delivery, he takes pauses at the correct places. I realised he was using his breath well, noting that while delivering all his big sentences or sometimes even after one word he’d take a pause, as is essential.
Also, in the beginning of my second audition in Mumbai, I hadn’t realised that my dialogue delivery was so much like Bachchan Saab’s. The auditioning team just said, “Yeh Bachchan Saab ko bahar ka rast dikhlao [Show this Mr Bachchan the way out].” That’s when I knew I had to change my tonality; I did, however, do one ICICI commercial with the man. I also did KBC with him.
I think Bahchan Saab and I have a lot of similarities, including our zodiac signs (I am a Libra), height and my anniversary also falls on the same date.
Q You’re debuting in Tamil with Ayalaan. Are other southern languages in your radar too? What’s your experience of working in the south been?
Speaking of southern films, I am all praises for south-Indian filmmakers. They believe in taking risks and have huge budgets, thus making Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films well known all over the globe. That’s very unlike the Marathi filmmakers who, despite the rich literature their land has, fail to take risks. Also, they don’t have huge budgets.
I believe that to be successful in any business, one must take risks. And I think Marathi filmmakers need to invest more money and fearlessly start taking risks. Changing our approach, becoming systematic, etc., will help Marathi filmmakers to produce better films. Presently, there are just a few we can count on our fingertips, like the 2014-film, Lai Bhaari.
Q Given you dubbed for Prabhas in the Hindi version of Baahubali, did you dub your own dialogues in Ayalaan?
Ayalaan is my debut Tamil film and no, I won’t dub for myself in it. After doing four or five films in the south, I hope to surely dub for my own films.
"I HAD STAMMERING HICCUPS, WHICH WAS A HUGE HINDRANCE IN MY LIFE. PROPER BREATHING IS WHAT HELPED ME SPEAK WELL."
—SHARAD KELKAR, ACTOR.