Atul Kulkarni has proved his mettle time and again with diverse roles on screen and also bagged the National Award for his performance in films like Chandni Bar and Hey Ram. The actor his now part of several projects on OTT. One of the most anticipated among them is Rudra: The Edge of Darkness, with Ajay Devgn in the lead. Atul talked about his experience of sharing screen space with Ajay Devgn after almost 19 years. The two actors had last worked together in Khakee.
In an interaction with News18, the 56-year-old actor shared, “It was really wonderful working with him. And after a long time, we did a film together. We did Khakee together. He is a great actor and an experienced person. So, it all helps when you have such an experienced person on set.”
Atul, who will be seen essaying the role of a cop in Rudra, dished on his experience of working in the film. He shared, “It has been a wonderful experience. The story has been written by Behzad Khambata and Ashley Lobo. Behzad Sir has gathered such a wonderful team right from his assistants to the actors. The success of a film completely depends on its director who gathers his team together. And it has been an absolute pleasure working on this project with everyone, not only for the co-actors but the entire team.”
On being asked about memories on the sets of the film, Atul said, “It was a very difficult shoot because we had to film in between constant rains. Sometimes we shot it in the monsoon, and sometimes it was rain, sometimes artificial rain. Also, we had the coronavirus situation going on. So, it was pretty difficult to shoot at restricted locations. The whole film is one of the difficult films that I have shot.”
Atul has also played a police officer in Yami Gautam starrer recently released film A Thursday. On being asked about the difference between the two roles, Atul said, “A profession is always mistaken for a character. A profession doesn’t determine a character. Every cop is different, every doctor is different, and every journalist is different. So, playing the same profession actually doesn’t mean anything. DCP Gautam is a different character. The profession doesn’t matter, according to me.”
He has worked in Marathi and South movies too. When asked if he found any difference in working with Bollywood and regional films, he said, “Every industry comes with a culture of its own, and the state that it is in. So, that is what it inherits, so it is different. I myself was born in Kolkata, raised in Maharashtra and I studied in Delhi. So, we come with our culture and it is always wonderful to work with different cultures and different industries.”
On being asked how A Thursday is different from other hostage films, Atul replied, “I don’t think that every film needs to be different. We cannot have every day of our life different. It’s about how well a story is told. And I think A Thursday is an excellent story, that is excellently told, that is why I think the movie is a must-watch.”
“I think it is a wonderful film and I’m so happy to be a part of it. We have received such a tremendous response. It has got such word-of-mouth publicity. It is absolutely wonderful and I all the credit goes to Behzad who wrote and directed A Thursday and Ronnie Screwvala who produced it. The entire credit of the film goes to these two people,” he further added.
