Mama Kallu mama, aye mama Kallu mama... It’s impossible to visualise the Goli Maar song from 98’s genre-bending movie Satya without the well-ethched father-figure character of Kallu played by Saurabh Shukla. Shukla wasn’t just an actor in the hit movie that clocked 25 years earlier this year but also co-wrote the script, which was a product of his extensive research on the Mumbai underbelly. Be it inspector Sudhanshu Dutta in Barfi, Kailash in Bandit Queen or Justice Tripathi in Jolly LLB, Shukla has shown his versatility in 100-plus movies and continues to do the same.

A screenwriter and director, besides being an actor on stage and screen, Shukla has been dabbling many roles in his professional career for over three decades. Speaking at the 4th Deccan Literature Fest, he shared experiences of his journey in cinema and beyond.

Shukla's foray into writing was accidental. It stemmed from the fact that he wanted to understand works of other writers better, during his initial days of theatre. “Mujhe likhne mein kabhi interest nahin tha,” said Shukla mentioning how his initial theatre days led him towards this path. “But I have been writing regularly for the last 30 years... I have to. I had no aspiration to be a writer. Scripts (for plays) are functional and informational. To understand it better, I wrote my own scripts. That’s how writing started.”

Discussing his writing journey, Shukla spoke about the loneliness that comes with being a writer. “Writing is a process that goes on till a film is released. You keep doubting yourself all the time. Unko sab suggestions dete hai, ye aise karo, ye sahi karo ... It's exactly like cricket. Everyone knows what shot should have been played but can’t face a single ball.”

Shukla, who considers Jolly LLB as an important film in his career, thinks it helped him establish himself as an actor all over again in the film industry. For him life is replicated though acting and he draws inspiration from life when it comes to portraying his roles, with both depth and humour.

“When actors approach a character, there is a particular colour to it. No one in real life is nice, bad, or brutal all the time. The bigger arch is one colour but then where are the rest of the colours? Where is the humour? When is the character vulnerable? When is he soft or hard? That is what we have to look for, that’s what we have to find.”

Theatre is where Shukla started his career back in 1986, with roles in A View From the Bridge by Arthur Miller and Ghashiram Kotwal by Vijay Tendulkar. In 2012, the actor decided to go back to theatre after a gap of 18 years. On being asked about the fate of theatre, he mentioned that whenever something new comes up, people say the old one will die. But does it?

“When I was around 25, people screamed that theatre was dying but it didn’t. When satellite television came, people said cinema was dying. Then OTT came and people said television was dying. If we are alive, everything else will be alive. Hum zinda hai na, toh sab zinda rahega!”

While talking about the amalgamation of films and theatre, Shukla emphasized, “You cannot fool around in films. In theatre, you have time on your side. Theatre is a place where you can fail, try again, and learn.” He pointed out how theatre can be a platform for actors to practice, open their mind up and experiment.