We hated him as Yuvraj Sushim, the evil half-brother of Ashoka, in Colors TV’s Chakravarthy Ashoka Samrat and despised his character Vicky, the psychopath in the Marathi film Manjha. But let’s admit it, we can’t stop falling in love with his acting prowess, his good looks, his infectious smile, and his effortless dance moves. Also called the ‘beat king’ Sumedh Mudgalkar, the light-eyed boy from Pune, is all set to play Lord Krishna in Star Bharat’s Radha Krishn starting tonight. Produced by Swastik Production, Radha Krishn will depict the epic love saga on the screen.
Sumedh, who was last seen in Marathi flick Bucket List starring Madhuri Dixit, learnt to play the flute for his role in Radha Krishn. But according to the Dil Dosti Dance actor, preparing for the character was more than just looking like Krishna and getting the body language right. Apart from visiting the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) temple, the 21-year-old actor did his own research to understand Krishna. While his light eyes certainly did the magic, him being a trained dancer further helped him enhance his performance as the show will also have parts featuring the Radha and Krishna dance. “You can’t take this character lightly. I needed to be very serious and responsible to understand the thought process of Krishna who always preached about accepting the truth of living— the most difficult thing in life. I read a few mythological books on him and a major part of my research involved finding the answers to the questions that I had about my own life. The more I researched about him, the closer I got to solving my own problems” says he.
Sumedh thinks that Krishna’s teachings, philosophies, and ideas are not just practical but also applicable in our day-to-day lives today. “He was here 3,000-5,000 years ago, and whatever he said back then is still relevant. He was a multidimensional personality, hence it was extremely important to understand his psyche, how he thinks and so on. I had to build my own Krishna,” he says.
To prepare for his role, he watched and observed the work of other actors who’ve played Krishna too. “Right from Swwapnil Joshi, SD Banerjee, Nitish Bharadwaj to Saurabh Raj Jain, I watched all of them to understand how they played Krishna and what new I could add to the character, I love to create my own character. That’s the fun part of being an actor—you get to observe and explore and bring out something new to what has already been told and shown. Interestingly, I discovered in this process that all these actors gave a touch of modernity to Krishna. There’s always something new and relevant about Krishna that continues to appeal actors and audience alike,” says Sumedh.
After playing Sushim, he got numerous calls asking him to play negative characters again. “As an actor, I need to try out different roles. A lot of people thought I couldn’t play a positive character— my face and eyes make me most suitable to play a villain. But here I am playing Krishna and I hope people’s perception changes after watching me in the show and they like my work. I’m here to do all the hard work and do roles that demand me to push my limits. I am not a negative or a positive actor. I am an actor,” asserts the Ventilator actor.
While the actor is a popular name on TV, he hasn’t been associated with any saas-bahu sagas. Is this a deliberate choice? “I don’t want to be an actor who only wants to earn money. I should play characters that are challenging. I will only play something that I really love. I may end up playing a character in a daily soap in future, but it has to be different and must give me an adrenaline rush,” concludes Sumedh.
