He does not have any bad habits like smoking or drinking. He is very regular in maintaining his daily exercise schedule and eating habits at the appropriate time. An early lunch and early dinner, with a good sound sleep; has kept him going in today’s changing lifestyle. We have never seen him sitting idle. If he is all alone at public places like promotional events of his film or while attending press shows, you will find him either talking to someone, on his cell phone or reading or replying text messages.
Marathi Movie world met this disciplined actor on two occasions during the past month. First, it was during the music release of his recently released film ‘Popat’ and later during the press show of the same film at famous studious. On both the occasions, he was occupied with discussions with the scribes, talking about this film. Indeed, Atul has given his best through this film, playing a typical fun loving videographer from a village. Knowing the strength of the role, he has tried to bring in that sudden change of his behaviour, after he realises that the character he plays in the video film, is very close to his real life character.
Otherwise, very selective about the roles offered to him, Atul having agreed to play the role of ‘happy go lucky’ – Janardan in ‘Popat'; itself indicated that the film was offering something different. When we asked him to comment on this, he openly admitted that the script of this film had appealed to him. One does not know the commercial success of this film; but, Atul certainly became part of the timely message on ‘social awareness’ delivered by the film maker through this film, in national interest . And, Atul seemed to be happy about it.
When asked about his other ongoing assignments, he frankly stated that he had no other assignments in hand, besides the TV show ‘Savdhaan Mumbai’ which was being aired on Life OK channel every Saturday and Sunday at 8 pm. “This show began from 10th August and I am doing 16 episodes as a narrator of this Police investigative serial based on crime detection. I really enjoyed, being part of this programme.” he said.
Having already performed opposite bigwigs like Amitabh Bachchan in ‘Khaki’, Kamal Hasan in ‘Hey Ram’, Tabu in ‘Chandani Bar’ , Aamir khan in ‘Rang De Basanti’ ; he has already bagged the National Awards for the best supporting actor for the films ‘Hey Ram’ and ‘Chandni Bar’, which itself speaks about his ability to deliver his best through any given role, which of course is of his choice. The length of the role doesn’t seem to matter to him much. This has become clear, through his role in ‘Khaki'; that too in presence of well known artistes like Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Tanuja, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and others around.
Atul’s next Bollywood film ‘Zanjeer’, is all set to release soon. In this film, he plays the character of Jaydev. This being the debut film of South star Ram Charan, (son of Telugu superstar Chhiranjeevi), opposite popular Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra, has raised lot of expectations. Atul has already been part of more than dozen of south films. To him, language of the film does not matter. It’s all in the body language and spontaneity, at any given situation. And, he is good at that.
