Bollywood baddie Sadashiv Amrapurkar, who is best remembered for his Maharani act in Sadak, is back with his first big venture on television — Zee TV’s period drama Shobha Somnath Ki. He tells t2 about the transition from theatre to films and now to TV.

After such a long innings in theatre and films, what made you take up a TV serial?

Television is the medium of the future. So I should be working here. I also liked the scale of the serial and the role that was offered to me. The story is a thousand years old. True, it is a negative role but it is different from what I have done so far.

Have you done a period piece before?

I played Jyotiba Phuley, a low caste revolutionary and social reformer who is revered in Maharashtra, in Shyam Benegal’s adaptation of Jawaharlal Nehru’s Discovery of India called Bharat Ek Khoj for Doordarshan. That was for three episodes. I also played Lokmanya Tilak for another TV series Raj Se Swaraj. That was for four episodes. Sobha Somnath Ki would be my first long stint on TV.

What is your role?

I am a tantrik called Rudrabhada jo tehelka macha deta hai. Devi uss ke vash mein aa jati hai. Uss waqt woh kumkum, nath wagera pehenta hai; Otherwise he dresses like a man. I am speaking ati shudh (chaste) Hindi in the serial. I have never spoken this language before. My shooting will start from June 23 as I enter the story only after Shobha, the protagonist, grows up.

Are you lucky to stay bare-chested while the royal family members are having to drape heavy silk in this heat?

I may be bare-chested but the ornaments I wear weigh five kilos and I will have to sit next to a fire to do yajna! What about that?

Theatre to films or films to television — which for you is a more radical transformation?

I came to films by a sweet accident. Vijay Tendulkar was a friend. He told me that I was needed to do a role in Govind Nihalani’s Ardh Satya. It was three days of work. Though I did not know ABCD of film acting, even now in shows I am asked to deliver Rama Shetty’s dialogues. But after 350-odd films, I started getting the same roles and it got so boring that I forgot what I was doing. So I took a break for two-three years — painting, clicking photographs, travelling the world… I was in the US when I got the call for this serial.

I come from a small town called Ahmednagar, where I had no one to teach me acting. For youngsters in similar situations, I have written an acting manual in Marathi. Aren’t you from Calcutta? I have huge regard for Shambhu Mitra. He did two-three plays for Indian National Theatre in Bombay. I acted in Kondi, a Marathi play which he directed (an adaptation of Ibsen’s Enemy of the People). I have seen his Char Adhyay — such command over speech! He used to say ek actor ko dimaag se philosopher aur body se athlete hona chahiye. I have learnt so much from him.

Earlier, films revolved round the hero, the heroine and the villain. Where has the villain gone?

Villains are not needed any more. But he was such an interesting character. Aajkal hero hi comedy, villainy sab kuch kar leta hai. But the villain will be back. In fact, after the success of Dabangg (with Sonu Sood as the baddie) villain ka daud phir se chalu ho gaya hai.