BHUBANESWAR: For someone who grew up breathing theatre, film is another medium of bringing forth his talent to a larger audience. For many, chocolate-faced hero with college-boy looks Sharman Joshi might be popular for his character Raju Rastogi from the 2009 flick ‘3 Idiots’, but the artiste’s acting prowess comes from theatre where he spends most part of his life.
Sharman, who has already proved his skills on the 75 mm with movies like Golmaal, Rang de Basanti or Ferrari ki Sawari and a lesser known film ‘Sorry Bhai’, is a well-known name in the theatre world.
Theatre is what brought him to Bhubaneswar for the first time, about two years back. The actor was in the State Capital with his play ‘Main aur Tum’, which talked about extramarital affairs but was not well-received in the City which was still to come to reality with such relationships. The play was widely criticised for the issue we dealt with. Many came forward asking me if I was endorsing such relationships,” says Sharman.
Talking about his growing up years, Sharman says, “Since my father is a theatre veteran, my memories with theatre started quite early. In my younger days, I would see my father direct plays and stage rehearsals. At one point, the only way of me performing was the theatre. It was only after I grew up that I realised there were other mediums too.”
Sharman says theatre prepared him for cinema. “After watching me in a play, theatre guru Satyadev Dubey liked my work and asked my father to send me for workshop sessions,’’ he says.His journey to cinema world began after Dubey suggested his name for Godmother. Between Godmother and Rang de Basanti, the actor went back to theatre and acted in several plays. “I treat theatre as a Ranji Trophy. As a performing art, I believe that I should act in such a way that I should make it count,” he said on the sidelines of the seventh edition of Odisha Literary Festival organised by The New Indian Express, Bhubaneswar which concluded recently.
The actor has his own production house Sharman Joshi Productions which he started four years back. After a decade of acting in movies, Joshi returned to theatre in 2015 with Raju Raja Ram Aur Main which was followed by Main Aur Tum in 2016 and The Play That Goes Wrong, a Broadway play, the next year.
Sharman’s next movie, Kaashi in Search of Ganga, is set for October 26 release.