I didn’t want to be known as a TV actor: Murli Sharma

Murli Sharma on his new telly show, doing meaningful roles in B-Town, the South Indian film industry and more
B-Town has its share of strong character actors who believe in doing meaningful roles and carving a niche for themselves. Actor Murli Sharma is no exception. Having done a variety of roles in B-Town and television, Murli feels that his face keeps many people away from approaching him.He says, “I don’t think people are scared of me, but they feel I am unapproachable because of my face.
Murli was in Mehsana for shooting his TV show Hum Ne Li Hai... Shapath, Murlicomes across as a different person — warm, affable and he’s a foodie too. As we sit down to chat with him over lunch, he tells us why he chose to do a telly show when he has many films in the pipeline. “The producers — B P Singh is like my guru and Pradeep Uppoor is like my brother. I am an emotional person, if anyone close to me tells me to do a project, I do it,” says Murli.
Television also pays well and is a lucrative career option, Murli however denies that he works for money. “Money hardly matters to me. I just need money to manage my basic expenses. If it was only about money then I would have worked 31 days in a month. I am in love with the camera. But I didn’t want to be known as a TV actor. I always wanted to make it big in films,” says Murli who is busy with more than five films this year. He will feature in filmmaker Dipak Tijori’s love story, Black Home, Zindagi 50-50, Policegiri, Dussehra and My Friend Ganesha Part 4.
Murli has played the super cop with ease in films. We ask him if he is getting typecast in cop roles. “It must be easy to get typecast in this industry, but I always remember what Mahesh Bhatt told me ‘creating an image is difficult, breaking it is easy. I have created the bad man image and I don’t mind that. In this cruel world, people don’t pay money to run my house, so I like to take up whatever comes my way. There are too many actors who aren’t as lucky as I am. My grandmother always taught me ‘being good is good, not being too good’,” he says ruefully.
Being a character actor Murli feels that he has been able to carve an identity for himself in B-Town. He says, “I am happy with the characters I have performed so far. I don’t plan anything because you never know what is going to happen next,” he says.
B-Town is seeing a lot of meaningful films and even character actors get to do lead roles. Ask him if he is open to lead roles and he says, “Why not? The script has to be character driven,” says Murli who is also doing films in the South — two untitled Tamil films and Telugu film Yevadu with Ram Charan Teja. Interestingly, Murli can speak around 13 to 14 languages.
Murli is married to popular actor Ashvini Kalsekar. “We are two strong personalities so at times we don’t meet at a common point, but we love being with each other. Ashwini is a fantastic actor. We respect each other and are compatible. Whenever we get free time, we cook together — I make good rasam.”