Rotary club celebrates Holi with Nilu Phule

Rotary club of Thane North celebrated Holi festival in the presence of a senior actor Nilu Phule.
Phule is a senior actor who has worked in Marathi, Hindi films and also done a great job in theatre. He observed the rituals of Holi in the beautiful surroundings of Ovla that followed his interactive interview. On this platform, chief guest Bansi Dhurandhar, district governor of Rotary felicitated Phule with Jeevan Gaurav Puraskar.
At the age of 80 Phule is quite enthusiastic and enjoys taking retrospective look at his life. Renowned anchor Sudhir Gadgil, who has interviewed over 3,000 celebrities at home and abroad, had an informal, hearty dialogue with Phule that held the audience spellbound.
"I was introduced to the magic world of acting by the art wing of Sewadal. We used to perform skits, songs and loknatya in rural and urban area of Maharashtra that helped me to develop acting skills and confidence," recalled Phule.
His grandmother owned a farm near Pune where Phule developed interest in gardening. He completed two years gardening course that fetched him a job at Armed force medical college at Khadki, Pune. In his spare time Phule used to see classic English films.
"I observed the acting of great artists and realized that one need not shout while doing intense scenes but body language and facial expressions speak more than words," said Phule.
Golden opportunity knocked his door when he was offered the lead role in hilarious folk play Katha Aklechya Kandyachi'.
Phule's spontaneous additions and punches added colour and the play created history. As it is said that a winner another, Phule won the silver screen of Marathi films with his first film Ek Gaon Bara Bhangadi'.
Phule's villains' role of Jhele Anna won audience's heart and after that he never turned back. His powerful voice, subtle expressions and talented acting put life in the characters that he performed on the screen. He made his mark with the multiple shades of villains in his film career.
"People used to treat me like a villain in real life. But after doing rape scenes in over 174 films, I have come to a conclusion that it's the most silly and comic thing in the world," Phule mentioned mischievously.
Classic films like Sinhasan, Samna, Marathi play Sakharam Binder are some of the milestones of Phule's career. He also worked in number of Hindi films. "My favorite actors in Hindi are Balraj Sahni, Nasiruddin shah, Amrish Puri, Pran and others.
I have worked with Amitabh Bacchan and found him warm, well mannered and modest person. My favorite actress is late Smita Patil," Mentioned Phule.
His social awareness led him to raise funds for back stage workers. Phule said, "It's my experience that people generously donate for noble work.
We had planned to collect Rs 25 lakh but ended with one core from which we help needy artists." Phule has strong political views which he express in party meetings. About the future of India he is optimistic.
He said, "I believe that young generation would lead the journey of progress from bottom towards the pinnacle". In the concluding session Phule answered some of audience's querries.
The event was graced by DG Bansi Dhurandhar, Dinesh Koregave, president Rotary club of Thane north, Madhukar Gupte, Arving Medhekar and others.