More than bubble:Article on Sharad

More than bubble

Four fractures and seven months of limping around later, Kolkata's Sharad Malhotra has reason to smile as his first soap Banoo Main Teri Dulhan completes 100 episodes and still manages to keep those eyeballs captive, writes Kajari Bhattacharya

The show has been charming inmates of the living room for quite a while now. Banoo Main Teri Dulhan on Zee TV has just completed 100 "rocking" episodes and the cast of the show couldn't be happier. Sharad Malhotra is a Kolkata boy and he is playing the lead role in the serial. This is his first role after he won the Zee Cinestars competition, had an accident while performing a stunt on the sets, was laid up in his Kolkata home for six months and finally went back to the city of dreamers in December 2004. "I had four fractures in my ankle and was limping around for seven months. I even limp around now, at times. But I guess falling down and picking yourself up is a part of growing up," says Sharad wisely. When the accident happened and the actor returned home, his family was very supportive of him ~ they all wanted him to go back to Mumbai after his recovery ~ all except his mother. "She was the only one who said 'no', others in my family were all for my joining the industry back in Mumbai," he grins.
When he returned, his first offer came from Zee TV, which was responsible for catapulting him to the small screen in the first place. "I'm lucky to be back with Zee, we were out of touch for sometime."
The show, Banoo Main Teri Dulhan, has been neck-and-neck with another of Zee's very popular serials, Kasamh Se. "In Banoo… I'm playing a 24-year old man who has the IQ of an eight-year-old," Sharad says, "Before an accident, he is a normal man ~ rather arrogant, a perfectionist and has had an education abroad. I play Sagar Pratap Singh, son of Raghav Pratap Singh, both scions of an aristocratic family."
Sharad is happy to be part of a cast that he finds fascinating. "I'm working with an amazing cast. There's Surinder Kaur, who played Jassi's mother in Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin, there's Kamiya Punjabi, who plays my elder sister and of course, there's Vidya, my screen wife."
The story of the serial has grabbed eyeballs in Kolkata for its likeness, at least in gist, to a popular Bengali film of the 1970s, Swayam Siddha, which starred Ranjit Mullick and Mithu Mukherjee.
But Shard has no immediate plans to move to the big screen. "Right now, I'm very happy with the small screen. In my very first project, I'm playing a mentally challenged person (and dong it quite well, one may add). I do have movie plans, but they have to wait until I feel comfortable enough to present myself on the big screen. Acting on the big screen is a big challenge. It's larger than life," says Sharad. The newcomer to the small screen has his feet firmly on the ground and carries no illusions about making a career in films. "How many people would really go to watch a newcomer on the big screen? To watch a movie, you have to shell out 200 to 250 bucks. How many would go to watch a newcomer for that kind of money? I know I wouldn't; one would prefer to watch the biggies, like Shah Rukh Khan or Abhishek Bachchan.
"You have to come up to a certain level from where you can comfortably present yourself. Technically, emotionally, professionally, I have lot to learn and I want learn," says the Kolkata boy who's on his way to making fame his constant companion.

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=26&id= 171393&usrsess=1

wow! sharad is really a dedicated actor! i can't wait for the sagar & vidya clashes to start! they are going to set our tv sets on fire!😳😳😳 thanks reemu for this article!😃

Woah!!........atleast he's better!!😛

He's so modest!!.........I'm glad he's concetrating more on the show rather than thinking about being big on the big screen just yet!!😳