'I am hating the lockdown'

Sharad Kelkar, the actor with the baritone voice and the towering personality seen most recently as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in Tanhaji, is confined to his home with his wife, television actress Keerti Gaekwad, and their young daughter.

"The lockdown has not affected me psychologically," Sharad tells Subhash K Jha. "But yes, it's a tough time for all of us."

"When it started, it was a shocker for a workaholic like me," he adds. "It took 2 to 3 days for the lockdown to sink in. But now we are together, the family, trying to make the best of our time together."

"I am doing a lot of introspection." he confesses. "Whatever I've done in my life and career, I'm getting an unexpected chance to think it over."

"I was a gym instructor when I started out 20 years ago," Sharad reveals. "I know how to train at home. I've some make-shift equipment so I am working out, though not vigorously, because I've to maintain the body-time I have right now for the sake of continuity in the films that I'm doing."

"I enjoyed catching up on my sleep for the first ten days," he says. "But now it is getting too much. I am hating it. I am a workaholic. I love to be out working all the time."

"I am missing my script narrations, my shootings."

"My advice is to stay at home. Don't go out unless urgent. Wear a mask if you have to go out. And don't touch anything except what you are buying when you go out," is Sharad's advice to readers.

"Spend time with family and children. You may not get such an opportunity to be with them. Talk to friends whom you haven't been in touch with," he adds.

"Re-connect with people you have lost touch with, including yourself."