Social Networth

Dressed in a green hoodie,GAP cap,rugged jeans and black ankle length books,Girija Shankar looks nothing like the grand old patriarch of the Kauravas,Dhritarashtra from the TV series Mahabharata. “I have moved on,” he says as he adjusts his dull gold watch,“Now,I am working on a Punjabi movie Aapa Phir Milenge,where I play the role of an Army officer.”

Shankar has acted in more than 10 Punjabi films and says that there are two more coming up. “All revolve around social issues. It’s important for me that the audience takes back something valuable after spending two hours watching my films,” he adds. Aapa Phir Milenge is about NRIs marrying women from Punjab and leaving them behind. Another film in the pipeline,a Bollywood venture called a DemoCrazy,is political satire. Shankar’s next project as a director,The Betrayal,too will incorporate a lesson on life. “It will be shot in Manhattan and release next year,” says Shankar,who started his journey as an actor when he was in Class X with a play,Faisla,and moved on to work in popular serials like Buniyaad.

While Shankar is open to small screen offers and will soon be signing a show,he is not impressed with TV. “There’s not much you can experiment with on TV,unless it’s a challenging role like Dhritarashtra,where you have to act blindfolded. Expressing without eyes is difficult,” he says. He goes back 20 years and talks about the role that made him a household name. “I had to research and read. The character was very absorbing,” he says. “The serial Mahabharata is just as relevant in today’s era as it was back then. It taught me a lot about relations and life. It got me on to the path of self-discovery,” says Shankar. Importantly,it was a role that made Shankar realise that he did not want to be stereotyped.

“I want to be a versatile actor,” he concludes.