Ankush Chaudhary’s triple act

Actor Ankush Chaudhary speaks to Nashik Times about his role as the director of Zhakaas It was his inclination towards the world of glitz and glamour that prompted Ankush Chaudhary to do Maharashtra Chi Lokadhara, way back in 1990. However, his journey since then has seen a lot of ups and downs. His acting career graph was at an all-time high when he got attracted to direction. The good newsnews is that his directorial abilities are being recognised and appreciated by the audiences. As the director of film Zhakaas, he says, “It’s been a lot of hard work. The humour in the film is evergreen. It is new for today’s generation and will always remain fresh for forthcoming generations as well.”Zhakaas, incidentally, is not his first directorial venture. In 2007, Ankush co-directed the film Sade Made Tin starring Ashok Saraf, Bharat Jadhav and Makrand Anaspure. Having worked as an assistant director for several movies enriched Ankush’s experience in the field of direction. He reveals, “I assisted Kedar Shinde for Jatra and Agabai Arrechcha. I got to work as an assistant choreographer as well and choreographed some fight sequences.” For Zhakaas, Ankush seems to have taken efforts to get a fit bod. “The three actresses in my film — Amruta Khanvilkar, Sai Tamhankar and Pooja Sawant are all size zero. They are so slim that I had to reduce to appear suit able in my role opposite them. On the contrary, in my last film Pratibimb, I was working with Sonali Kulkarni and to complement her, I had to put on weight. You can say that my fitness is as per the requirement of the film’s actress,”he laughs. Whilst in the city, he says that Nashik, the wine capital of India, is very dear to him. “The film Sawarkhed – Ek Gaav made me a hero in the true sense. That film was shot mostly in Nashik and by the city-based director Rajiv Patil.” I often stop by at Diwtya Budhlya or Sahiba while in Nashik. Gayatri Deshmukh