Sharad Kelkar: To wear a saree is fine, but to walk in it is crazy

Murtuza Iqbal

Sharad Kelkar is being appreciated a lot for his performance in the movie Laxmii. The actor plays the role of a transgender in the film and though he only has a screen time of 15-20 minutes, Sharad surely steals the show with his performance.

We recently interacted with Sharad and asked him what preparations he did to play the character of a transgender. To which the actor said, “Mostly I went with Raghava sir’s (Lawrence) vision, and what Akshay sir (Kumar) had done in the film. He had shot before me. So, I saw all that, and yes I was obviously interacting with a lot of transgenders on phone and on shoot also I was chatting with them to get those small nuances of how they talk, how they walk, or how they behave and what is their mindset. So, that helped me a lot.”

In the movie, Sharad is seen wearing sarees, so when we asked him how difficult is to wear a saree, the actor said, “I can give the best example about it that now I don’t ask my wife to get ready fast, I give her time. It’s tough. But yes, when I was doing the scenes, there were so many bangles in my hand, some where getting broken, so it was hurting and I was bleeding. To wear a saree is fine, you are standing and somebody is draping it around you, but to walk in it, it’s like crazy. Salute to all the women who do that, it’s tough.”

Directed by Raghava Lawrence, Laxmii is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.