Saurabh Shukla

e all around. His father was a vocalist and Head of department of music and fine arts at Delhi University. His mother holds the record of being India’s first lady tabla player. His elder brother, who lives in Botswana, southern Africa is also into music. So music was all around the house but young Shukla wanted to do something different. Since from the tender age of 8 years he watched movies he was attracted by cinema and wanted to make a film. He says the bug of making the film bit him when he was in class VI and he began by writing a story. Though he could never write more than 10 to 12 lines but his parents would marvel at whatever he wrote. Saurabh Shukla took to full fletch theatre at college When Shukla joined Delhi’s Khalsa College his wings in creative writing took shape as he came in contact with likeminded friends who wished to make films but had no finance hence they started doing theatre. After completing college Shukla took up professional theater in 1984 and joined Sakshi Theatre in Mandi House in Delhi and seriously did theatre till 1991. Saurabh Shukla joined NSD’s Repertory Company After becoming a professional in theatre Shukla joined NSD’s Repertory Company as a teacher. The objective of NSD’s Repertory Company is to guide the graduates of NSD with professional theatre, do theater festival and take students on tour and expose to World Theater. Here Shukla had the pleasure of working with legendary stage director Ebrahim Alkazi.

Saurabh Shukla was spotted by film director Shekhar Kapur When Shukla was enjoying theatre at NSD his colleague Seema Biswas was selected by filmmaker Shekhar Kapur for his film Bandit Queen. Hence Shekhar Kapur would often visit NSD to meet her and discuss about the film. Shekhar Kapur who had come to NSD to see a performance of Seema Biswas in a play. Incidentally Shukla was also doing a role in the same play. He saw Shukla's essaying his part though he did not offer him any role. Shukla was left confused but he did not give much thought to it as he was not interested in cinema was content doing theatre. However next day, Tigmanshu Dhulia, the filmmaker who is today known for his films like Paan Singh Tomar , Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster, Gangs of Wasseypur etc, came to meet Shukla. In those days Tigmanshu Dhulia was assisting Shekhar Kapur and he asked Shukla to come to Mumbai as Shekhar Kapur had selected him for the film Bandit Queen. An excited Shukla came to Mumbai but life was not easy. Saurabh Shukla took to TV for survival Though Bandit Queen was hit but it was not a commercial success hence Shukla had to do television for his survival. He started as Vijay Anand's sidekick Gopi in the detective television serial Tehkikaat aired on Doordarshan (1994). His other television serial include Zee TV's 9 Malabar Hill. In addition he did his famous play 2 to Tango, 3 to Jive. When he was busy doing TV film director Sudhir Mishra called him and signed him for his film Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin (1996). With the film Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin, Shukla won his first nomination from Screen Award, a big achievement. Later Vidhu Vinod Chopra cast him in a small role in his film Kareeb as Bobby Deol’s father. But nothing seems to hit the bull’s eye and Shukla had to wait until Satya happened! Saurabh Shukla became famous as Kallu mama in Satya Shukla shared a rented house with 3 people viz. Vijay Krishna Acharya( who later became famous as Dhoom 3 director), Tigmanshu Dhulia (who later made films like Paan Singh Tomar , Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster, Gangs of Wasseypur) and Manoj Bajpayee (Satya, Raajneeti, Aarakshan, Gangs of Wasseypur). The three would keep struggling and help each other. When Manoj Bajpayee got Ram Gopal Verma’s Satya, he introduced Shukla to Ram Gopal Verma (popularly known as Ramu) . During the meeting Shukla told Ramu that he is also a good writer. Ramu gave him a scene to write which Shukla wrote marvelously hence Ramu appointed him as a screenplay writer along with Anuraag. While working on the script Ramu came upon an ideal to cast Shukla in the role of Kallu Mama. The idea clicked and Shukla got his first commercial success. After Satya, Saurabh Shukla had a lean phase but Barfi changed everything After Satya, Manoj Bajpayee became a star and Anuraag Kashyap became a popular filmmaker but Shukla was the only one who was not able to enjoy the success of Satya. He says that for six months he had no good work and he was forced to become a teacher at FTII for survival. He was disappointed with his career. Anuraag invited him and narrated him about his film Barfi with Ranbir Kapoor. The news injected energy. The success of Barfi, made Shukla quite popular and he did many films like Jolly LLB, Phata Poster Nikla Hero, Gunday, Kick, PK.