He is the quintessential boy next door who's made it big. With two memorable roles in two iconic films, “Rang De Basanti” and “3 Idiots”, Sharman Joshi reveals to Spriha Srivastava how he has effortlessly straddled genres to carve out his own space in Bollywood.
What drew you towards movies?
Well, the early influences surely happened from the family. My father, uncle and aunt are from Gujarati theatre and films, so I was exposed to the way of working and the lifestyle very early on in life. So acting became a very obvious choice of career, or at least an option. But I didn’t want to be an actor just because that would be a cool thing to do or because that is where my family belonged. Academically, I wasn’t bad. I had considered management at some point of time, but while I was considering that, I took part in some inter-college drama competitions. One thing led to another and then there was professional theatre in Hindi and Gujarati. Finally, I decided that films are where I wanted to be. Mr Satyadev Dubey, a well-known theatre person in Mumbai recommended my name to Mr Vinay Shukla, the director of “Godmother” when he was looking for someone for the role. That’s how it all started.
What do you think is your greatest strength as an actor?
My greatest strength as an actor is that I don’t know what it is and the fact that I don’t analyse it. Everyone has an approach, mine is instinctive. I go with the flow of things. To study a character or a scene or the film on the whole is far too much for me and thus kills the joy of actually being on the floor on the day of the shoot and then enacting the scene. Though a lot of people told me to read books on acting, and to go to formal acting school and understand the craft, I decided not to. Fortunately, I had a tutor in theatre personality, Mr Maninder Joshi, in my inter-college competition days. I was lucky to get a chance to work with him for two years. I have not really studied acting but certain rules and disciplines that an actor should have, were taught by Mr Joshi to me. He was like a true-blue professional. He would always be on time and would know his lines well. These basics I was made to understand very correctly and I think that has really helped me as an actor.
"3 Idiots" must have raised the bar for you too. Do you now sit back and think of an action plan for the kind of roles and movies you want to do?
As an actor you don’t really have that choice in my opinion. The script chooses an actor. An actor cannot actually go out and write the script. If he could, then yes I would definitely sit down and have a game plan about the next thing I want to attempt and what genre of film I want to do. As an actor, I have to be open to all sorts of genres and any good script as long as it is something that excites me.
Don’t you give importance to the director or the banner you are going to be working with? Aren’t these things important?
Oh for sure they are! It all begins with the script so I keep saying the script. But in terms of priority, first would be the script followed by the director, my role in it, and then the banner.
You first appeared in “Godmother” and then in “Style”. Wasn’t that a risky start or a risky role to take up after doing just one movie?
I was very eager to shed the weight of an intellectual actor. Coming from theatre and having done a film like “Godmother,” I was quickly being pushed into so-called artistic or experimental cinema, and that is where I didn’t want to head. I understand that I am in the world of entertainment and I have no issues in entertaining people, as long as it is wholesome, clean, interesting and exciting entertainment. So I was looking for any and every possible genre. “Style” happened to choose me. It was a comedy film and I had no issues doing an all-out entertainer. A conventional hero launch would not have been designed for me considering that I don’t have a lineage as such. So I was not really waiting for any such launch. That explains why I took up “Godmother”. I was hoping that my work will speak for itself.
What drew you towards movies?
Well, the early influences surely happened from the family. My father, uncle and aunt are from Gujarati theatre and films, so I was exposed to the way of working and the lifestyle very early on in life. So acting became a very obvious choice of career, or at least an option. But I didn’t want to be an actor just because that would be a cool thing to do or because that is where my family belonged. Academically, I wasn’t bad. I had considered management at some point of time, but while I was considering that, I took part in some inter-college drama competitions. One thing led to another and then there was professional theatre in Hindi and Gujarati. Finally, I decided that films are where I wanted to be. Mr Satyadev Dubey, a well-known theatre person in Mumbai recommended my name to Mr Vinay Shukla, the director of “Godmother” when he was looking for someone for the role. That’s how it all started.
What do you think is your greatest strength as an actor?
My greatest strength as an actor is that I don’t know what it is and the fact that I don’t analyse it. Everyone has an approach, mine is instinctive. I go with the flow of things. To study a character or a scene or the film on the whole is far too much for me and thus kills the joy of actually being on the floor on the day of the shoot and then enacting the scene. Though a lot of people told me to read books on acting, and to go to formal acting school and understand the craft, I decided not to. Fortunately, I had a tutor in theatre personality, Mr Maninder Joshi, in my inter-college competition days. I was lucky to get a chance to work with him for two years. I have not really studied acting but certain rules and disciplines that an actor should have, were taught by Mr Joshi to me. He was like a true-blue professional. He would always be on time and would know his lines well. These basics I was made to understand very correctly and I think that has really helped me as an actor.
"3 Idiots" must have raised the bar for you too. Do you now sit back and think of an action plan for the kind of roles and movies you want to do?
As an actor you don’t really have that choice in my opinion. The script chooses an actor. An actor cannot actually go out and write the script. If he could, then yes I would definitely sit down and have a game plan about the next thing I want to attempt and what genre of film I want to do. As an actor, I have to be open to all sorts of genres and any good script as long as it is something that excites me.
Don’t you give importance to the director or the banner you are going to be working with? Aren’t these things important?
Oh for sure they are! It all begins with the script so I keep saying the script. But in terms of priority, first would be the script followed by the director, my role in it, and then the banner.
You first appeared in “Godmother” and then in “Style”. Wasn’t that a risky start or a risky role to take up after doing just one movie?
I was very eager to shed the weight of an intellectual actor. Coming from theatre and having done a film like “Godmother,” I was quickly being pushed into so-called artistic or experimental cinema, and that is where I didn’t want to head. I understand that I am in the world of entertainment and I have no issues in entertaining people, as long as it is wholesome, clean, interesting and exciting entertainment. So I was looking for any and every possible genre. “Style” happened to choose me. It was a comedy film and I had no issues doing an all-out entertainer. A conventional hero launch would not have been designed for me considering that I don’t have a lineage as such. So I was not really waiting for any such launch. That explains why I took up “Godmother”. I was hoping that my work will speak for itself.
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