Mandar feels that his theatre experience has groomed him into a better actor for comedy roles which helped him greatly for his current serial Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah. "All the Best was a comedy on a hearing impaired, speech impaired and visually impaired characters. I had played the man who couldn't see. This play helped me to learn about comic timing and how to react. Every good actor should be a good reactor."
He is also full of praise for his co-star Dilip Joshi. Mandar says, "He is a very nice human being. He taught me how to deliver punch lines with lan and catch the humour between the lines."
A few years ago the word 'tuition' was misspelled as 'tution' on Bhide's nameplate which was outside his door on the sets of this series. Mandar after spotting the error changed it to the correct spelling.
Residents of middle-class housing societies can relate to the soap very well. What is his take on that? "Exactly, as the characters hail from families of the same socio-economic group they can obviously indentify with it. The residents of our series are a part of a cosmopolitan society. In fact when they see each and every scene they can draw a parallel to their lives. All the Indian festivals are celebrated in it too."
Mandar is pleasantly amused when viewers request him for admission in his class. After all advertisements for Bhide Tutorials (bearing the same title as the tutorial in his show) are splashed all over Mumbai city.
In fact there are viewers who want to purchase his flat as well. We jokingly asked as to what the price of his flat was. Mandar joked, "Bhide will never sell his flat."
What if Bhide's daughter Sonu (Nidhi Bhanushali) marries Tappu (Bhavya Gandhi)? His jovial reply was, "Aah, that is a million dollar question. He doesn't want her to do that. Nor does she. Actually, he finds Tappu undisciplined and naughty. He doesn't study. In future if he turns over to a new leaf, he would be okay with the match though."
Mandar is open to playing all kinds of roles in future. His dream role is however of Amol Palekar's role as Arun Pradeep in the classic Basu Chatterjee Hindi romantic comedy film Chhoti Si Baat.
We wish this talented actor all the best for the future.