The call came from Chennai. Kamal Haasan himself wanted to audition him for a role! “Kamal had heard about my performance in the play ‘Gandhi Virudha Gandhi’. He was then casting for Hey Ram, ” recalls Atul Kulkarni. The actor was in Kozhikode shooting for Nellikka , editor Bijith Bala’s directorial debut.
That rendezvous with Kamal, some 14 years ago, proved to be the turning point in Atul’s career. “I was offered the role [of a religious hardliner who wanted to assassinate Mahatma Gandhi] on that day itself. It was an unforgettable experience working with Kamal. He taught me cinema,” he says. Atul’s powerful performance did not go unnoticed. He won the National Award for the best supporting actor. He would win the same award two years later for Chandni Bar . He had arrived on screen, truly.
“The success of Chandni Bar at the box office was a huge boost at that time of my career. Ever since I had decided to study at the National School of Drama, New Delhi, I had wanted to take up acting as my profession,” he says.
Atul is not doing much theatre these days, though. “I am not really missing theatre as I get to act in films, that too in different languages, such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Marathi, my mother tongue. I love working in multiple languages, and these days good films are being made across the country,” he says.
He has high expectations about Nellikka. “I have been able to get some good roles in Malayalam, beginning with Thalappavu . In Nellikka , I play a banker who chooses to stay in with his in-laws and becomes very much part of the family. I decided to do this film because I liked the plot,” he says.
Looking back at his own career, Atul says: “I have been able to do a variety of roles, in films such as Rang De Basanti , Edegarike (Kannada), Veeram and Natarang (Marathi). I had to put in a lot of effort for Natarang , as I was playing a wrestler who is forced to become an effeminate dancer,” he says.
He is now looking forward to his next Bollywood release, Dirty Politics, directed by K.C. Bokadia.
