SAYAJI SHINDE
Packing a mean punch...

Out of the blue, I received a call from Manoj Bajpai. I did not know Manoj at all well. Neither had I seen his film, Satya. I was out of town when he called, and he called twice. When I returned, and gave him a call, Manoj asked me if I’d be interested in working in a Ram Gopal Varma film? He said he’d suggested my name for a villain’s role in Ramuji’s Shool.

Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of the Mumbai-based Marathi theatre, needs no introduction to Sayaji Shinde. Without a doubt, Sayaji is one of the finest recruits to Hindi films from the Marathi stage.

Having worked in several Marathi plays, serials and films, Sayaji is now creating ripples in Hindi filmdom too. Indeed, Sayaji is no stranger to the movie connoisseur, having first caught the eye as the redoubtable eunuch in Kalpana Lajmi’s Darmiyaan. Now, he’s followed it up with the powerpacked performance as the dialect-spouting Bachchu Yadav in Ram Gopal Varma’s Shool. After Darmiyaan, he’d only received critical acclaim. Now, at long last, meaty, exciting offers have begun to pour in, too.

Sayaji was born at Velekamti, a village in Maharashtra’s Satara district and graduated from Satara’s Lal Bahadur Shastri College. His family, which is predominantly farm-based, is as much surprised by his exploits on screen as by his success.

“Would you believe it, from morning to night the phone hardly stops ringing. God knows how so many people got hold of the number at all. The calls are not just congratulatory. Some want to meet me, some to interview me, or even sign me for a TV spot or serial, even for a movie. It’s a great feeling,” gushes an elated Sayaji, when I meet him at a Mumbai restaurant.

He goes on to tell me about a friend of his who happened to see a cut-out of his from Shool, stopped the auto-rickshaw he was riding in, and stood admiring the ad for a long while. His family is just as thrilled by the trappings of his success.

Was Sayaji always interested in acting?

“I come from a family of farmers and nobody has even the remotest links with filmdom,” says Sayaji. “Neither did I give it a thought till I got a chance to participate in a college play, and won a trophy or two for best actor. One of my close friends advised me to take up acting seriously. But it wasn’t until I was married in 1982, that I mustered up enough courage to come to Mumbai. I joined the well-known Marathi theatre group, Aavishkar, and soon found myself working with stalwarts like Arvind Deshpande, Sulabha Deshpande and Rohini Hattangadi. I also had a bank job to support me, financially. So I didn’t really have to struggle to make ends meet,” he adds.

Starting off with miniscule roles, by and by, Sayaji began to get meatier challenges in Marathi plays. Soon, he established himself as an actor of repute on the stage. It is as a eunuch in the play Zulwa, that Sayaji became a force to reckon with. Sayaji narrates an interesting anecdote from those days: “At one time, I was working in two Marathi plays simultaneously, as a eunuch in Zulwa and a wrestler in another. In the mornings, I was a eunuch, and come evening, I’d be a wrestler again. And most people in the audience reckoned I had to be either a eunuch or a professional wrestler in real life,” he laughs.

His natural performance in Zulwa fetched Sayaji the role of the eunuch in Kalpana Lajmi’s Darmiyaan, a very meaty role. Though the film did not do well, Sayaji came in for a great deal of praise. He was even nominated for several awards including the SCREEN-Videocon in the category of best supporting actor. He may not have won any of the awards on final count, but the very fact that he was nominated for them, with his very first film, gave him a great deal of confidence. But thereafter, it was back to the regular grind of the Marathi stage, films and serials for Sayaji.

“Then out of the blue, I received a call from Manoj Bajpai. I did not know Manoj at all well. Neither had I seen his film, Satya. I was out of town when he called, and he called twice. When I returned, and gave him a call, Manoj asked me if I’d be interested in working in a Ram Gopal Varma film? He said he’d suggested my name for a villain’s role in Ramuji’s Shool. Manoj had seen a photograph of mine from the play Tumbara (also written by Sayaji) in which I was the solo performer, in the Indian Express. Impressed by the report on me, Manoj thought I’d be the ideal choice for Bachchu Yadav’s role. So I owe this success to him. Ram Gopal Varma took one look at me, from top to bottom and told me he’d soon get in touch with me. He did. By evening, I’d been finalised for the role,” Sayaji recalls.

Well, the first thing Sayaji did on being told of the selection was to watch Satya. Ever since, he’s been a great Manoj Bajpai fan.

Sayaji’s mother tongue being Marathi, conversing in Hindi doesn’t come easily to him. Yet, he speaks Bhojpuri with a natural flair in Shool, courtesy the homework he put in before the shoots began.

“I work very hard on my roles. For Shool, I spent ten days in Bihar, chatting up people, all in an effort to get a basic feel of the dialect. I guess the hard work paid off,” he smiles.

So how did he prepare for the eunuch’s role in Darmiyaan, we ask him. “I did it the only way I knew — went to a eunuch basti in Mumbai, watching them at close quarters. I couldn’t care less if people misunderstood my motives,” laughs Sayaji. Besides, for Darmiyaan, he had the Zulwa experience behind him, which helped immensely, too.

Now Sayaji is working in an art film, based on the lives of Naxalites. To perfect the role and its nuances, Sayaji has been in touch with a Naxalite friend, even reading Naxalite literature to better understand the Naxalite psyche. And all this hard work is intended merely to make his character look more authentic on screen.

Some time back Sayaji had been offered the main lead in a TV serial, an offer he thumbed down on Ram Gopal Varma’s advice. For though Varma had given him the freedom to do as he pleased, he suggested Sayaji wait a while. Varma was convinced that after Shool, he’d have no dearth of exciting offers. Varma’s words turned out to be prophetic, and Sayaji has no regrets about turning the serial down, though its producers offered him big money.

Apart from the Naxalite film, Sayaji has signed films with three big banners. One is by Ketan Desai, one is to be produced by Time, and the third is to be directed by Sudhir Mishra. All the offers have come to him on the strength of his performance in Shool. “And yes, I am also playing an important role in Kalpana Lajmi’s Daman,” Sayaji informs us.

With films, money has also begun to flow in. Recently, when he got Rs 1 lakh as the signing amount for a film, his eyes almost popped out.

“I was so happy that I don’t even remember how I returned home from the producer’s office that day. I still couldn’t believe my luck when the cheque was encashed. I used the money to repay a huge instalment on my home loan,” he confesses. The way things are going it looks as if Sayaji will soon get used to big money.

Sayaji also works in the Kurla branch of a bank, and he is grateful to his colleagues because of whom, he was able to continue working in theatre along with his job.

Acting, indeed, is Sayaji’s passion. “I thoroughly enjoy acting,” he confesses. And he’s even happier to know his hobby has begun to pay rich dividends, too.

While Sayaji is working with other filmmakers he hasn’t signed another film with Ram Gopal Varma. Why? “Ramuji did like my performance in Shool. I asked him when I’d get another chance to work with him, and he said as soon as he had a better role to offer me than Bachchu Yadav, he’d let me know. I’m still looking forward to his call,” concludes Sayaji.

Alok Mathur