Sadashiv Amrapurkar

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was a successful businessman and a celebrated personality. In contrast Sadashiv Amrapurkar was not interested in business. He was inclined to theatre and displayed his prowess as an actor from his school days. He studied at Navin Marathi Shala, Society High School and soon became famous as a good actor. His friends lovingly called him Tatya. After his SSC; he obtained his M.A. degree in History from Pune University. He continued acting on stage as he had joined People’s Theatre Group during his college.

nal actor in 1974 with Marathi drama, Pai, Pai an Pai (one-act play). It was directed and acted by him. It was a huge success. Later he directed and acted in more than 50 dramas. His most prominent dramas include Hands Up, Kanyadaan, Nishpap, Lagnachi Bedi etc. It was during the stage performance he was picked by Jayoo Patwardhan and Nachiket Patwardhan, the husband –wife director Jodi for their Marathi film 22 June 1987 (1979). Earlier Sadashiv Amrapurkar was approached by many filmmakers but he declined film offers as he was passionate theatre enthusiast but when he heard the script of 22 June 1987, he was overwhelmed as he had a tailor made role of India’s popular freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Interestingly when Sadashiv Amrapurkar wore the costume of Bal Gangadhar Tilak he suited the character to a perfect T. In fact Sadashiv Amrapurkar was so apt for the role of Bal Gangadhar Tilak that he even played Bal Gangadhar Tilak in the popular TV serial Raj Se Swaraj (1989) on DD. Sadashiv Amrapurkar had declined Govind Nihalani’s Ardh Satya After the mega success of Marathi film 22 June 1987, Sadashiv Amrapurkar was flooded with film offers but he stuck to his guns as he did not wanted to lose the passion of theatre. He was aware films would steal his time for theatre. In 1981, Sadashiv Amrapurkar created sensation in Marathi theatre world with his Marathi drama Hands-Up! The drama had Marathi theatre legends Avinash Masurekar and Bhakti Barve-Inamdar. The drama was commercially super hit so much that besides Marathi theatre enthusiast, even Hindi theater lovers watched it. One among them was Hindi filmmaker Govind Nihalani. He was left dazed by Sadashiv Amrapurkar’s amazing acting skills in the play. Soon after the play Govind Nihalani went backstage and caught hold of Sadashiv Amrapurkar and tried to convince him to act for his upcoming film Ardh Satya. But to Govind Nihalani’s dismay Sadashiv Amrapurkar declined the offer despite Nihalani offering him a whooping remuneration, which was 10 times the payment that Sadashiv Amrapurkar got for his plays!!! So readers would wonder - how did Govind Nihalani cajoled Amrapurkar to do the film? Well, Amrapurkar had declined the offer because he had committed his dates for his Marathi play Hands Up and had no time. After a lot of ponder, Govind Nihalani cajoled Sadashiv Amrapurkar by taking just 7 days time to shot his role. Sadashiv Amrapurkar agreed and rest is history. Sadashiv Amrapurkar wrote history with Ardh Satya Just as Amjad Khan and Amrish Puri wrote history as Gabbar Singh (Sholay) and Mogambo (Mr. India) respectively; similarly Sadashiv Amrapurkar wrote history as Rama Shetty, a local don of Mumbai. Rama Shetty’s character was inspired from the real life Mumbai don, Varadarajan Mudaliar, the South gangster who held terror in Mumbai’s crime world. The beauty of Rama Shetty’s character was that unlike deadly Gabbar Singh and Mogambo; he was simple without any fake make –up to make him look dreaded. He wore a simple lungi and banyan but it was his expressive eyes that unleashed terror and his typical South accent voice had the right texture that made the character natural. Another highlight of Sadashiv Amrapurkar was his effortlessness; he sensibly underplayed the character instead on being loud or more evil. The idea clicked and he went on to win the Filmfare best supporting actor award. After Ardh Satya Sadashiv Amrapurkar became star villain Though Ardh Satya was an art film but its success was equivalent to a commercial movie. The movie celebrated silver jubilee and made Sadashiv Amrapurkar the most sought after villain in Bollywood. Amough his most successful performances include Kaal Chakra (1988), Purana Mandir, Eeshwar, Aakhree Raasta, Ishq etc. Readers would be surprised to know that before Amirish Puri became an icon as Mr.Mogambo in Mr. India, it was Sadashiv Amrapurkar who unleashed terror as DBDN – (Deen Bandhu Deena Nath) an aristocratic ruler of Shanti Nagar in India in the film Hukumat (1987). He dressed like a King and looked devilish. The film had Dharmendra in lead role. The movie was a huge it and its director Anil Sharma repeated the same Jodi of Dharmendra and Sadashiv Amrapurkar in Elaan-E-Jung (1989 ) and Farishtay (1991). Sadashiv Amrapurkar as Tantrik Rudrabhada was chilling Sadashiv Amrapurkar also experimented with TV and like Bollywood emerged successful as the evil Tantrik Rudrabhada in the TV serial Shobhaa Somnath Ki which was set in Bharuch many centuries ago. As Tantrik Rudrabhada, Sadashiv Amrapurkar had donned a devilish get-up that wears above 5 kg ornaments. He employed dark forces and supernatural spell to fulfill his devotees’ wishes. Sadashiv Amrapurkar won wide acclaim as Tantrik Rudrabhada. Sadashiv Amrapurkar proved his histrionics in comedy After entertaining his audience as villain, Sadashiv Amrapurkar displayed his histrionics as a comedian and did a number of films and won fame. His first foray in comedy begin with filmmaker David Dhawan in Aankhen (1993), in this film as Police Inspector Pyare Mohan he won hearts of audience as a comedian. Later he did many films as comedian like Coolie No 1, ‘Gupt: The Hidden Truth, Aunty No 1, Hum Saath Saath Hain, Raja Bhaiya, Mohra etc.