It isn’t easy to crack it as a lead actor in Bollywood. It is even tougher to be a supporting actor, and make a lasting impression. Few actors have aced the latter. There’s Sanjay Mishra, Divya Dutta, Kay Kay Menon, Vijay Raaz, and there’s Atul Kulkarni. He has managed to shine despite sharing the screen with much bigger stars such as Kamal Haasan, Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan.
In fact, City of Dreams is the first time he is playing the lead in a prominent Hindi production. The third season of the Hotstar series released on May 26. The actor plays the power-hungry chief minister of Maharashtra, Ameya Rao Gaikwad, who can go to any extent—even alienate or harm his own family—to hold on to his position.
“There’s almost a sinister quality to my character, but he has also been vulnerable right from the opening scene, where he is shot. In the second season, he is disabled, but he always bounces back,” Kulkarni says. In the latest season, his character undergoes a significant transformation. “A series of events fundamentally alter the core of my character, creating a lot of potential for drama, and the writers have exploited that fully,” he adds.
As is evident from his roles in the over 100 productions he has done across six languages— Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada––the actor has a visible penchant for grey, menacing characters. He played a Hindu fanatic in Hey Ram, a hot-headed gangster in Chandni Bar, a cunning politician in Satta, a budding activist in Rang De Basanti, and a crime lord in Raees. But, unlike what actors often say for darker roles, work has never taken a toll on him. Acting, for Kulkarni, is a technique, and nothing more.
“If I get affected by intense roles, then I am not doing my job properly. I am supposed to make people believe that I am the character,” he says.
A poster of City of DreamsAgain, contrary to the popular assertion by many in the fraternity, he does not do any research for a film, unless absolutely necessary. “For me, everything begins and ends with the script and, of course, the director, because he is the storyteller,” says the Page 3 actor, adding, “As for preparation, I believe it’s a 24-hour process; when you are reading books, newspapers, watching films, web shows, talking to people and travelling, you are absorbing.”
Kulkarni saw tangible success pretty early. He received the National Award for his first two Hindi films—Hey Ram and Chandni Bar—within four years of starting his career in 1997. When asked if he enjoyed the initial years more than what followed, pat comes the reply,
“I think all phases in an actor’s life are linked. There is no good or bad phase. You learn a lot even when your films don’t do well. I don’t like to think of my career in terms of successful and unsuccessful phases.”
If his filmography, of late, is anything to go by, he is certainly in an OTT phase. Following City of Dreams, he will be returning to the small screen with the second season of the musical series, Bandish Bandits, on Amazon Prime. “In the long format, you get so much space to tell your story, and exploit everything you have in your mind,” says the actor, who has also starred in shows such as Sandwiched Forever, Rudra: The Edge of Darkness and Happy Family: Conditions Apply.
Last year, Kulkarni added another feather in his cap. He debuted as a screenwriter for Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha. Unfazed by its failure at the box office, the 57-year-old says, “All of us put in a lot of hard work and time because we believed in the story. Despite the outcome, we stand by that.” He adds, “We all know Aamir; he won’t go ahead with a project unless he is completely convinced. As for me, if I had to write it again, I will write it the same way.”
