'3 Idiots' was special for me because it gave me recognition as my name – Sharman Joshi

In your career, you have played characters of all shades in many films like 'Godmother', 'Style', 'Three Idiots', 'Golmaal', but now you are rarely seen?

-I want to work as much as I can. Now I have got a lot of clarity about the roles, but sometimes there comes a period in the life of us artists when the work becomes a bit monotonous. Somewhere a project is being prepared for you and when the time comes, you get that work. By the way, recently you must have seen me in the web series 'Kafas'. I have also received an award for my character in Kafas. Soon one of my films 'Tisvi Manzil' will be shown on OTT. This is a thriller film, it also stars Arjun Rampal and Bobby Deol. My character in it is quite interesting.

Why were you suddenly attracted from acting to 'Mentalism'?

-Bhupesh Dave ji is my guru and mentor in the field of mentalism (a science in which mentalists or psychiatrists try to understand the problems going on within humans through science and also treat them). I have come into this field by taking inspiration from him. I am going to present this show by working with him. Six years ago I went to see one of his shows. I was surprised to see how he was dealing with the complexities of the human mind after watching that show. We also discussed how I could use it in my acting. I was already interested in mentalism. During Covid we decided that we would launch a show which would be India's first mentalist show. We decided that we would design a show and perform it. I spent a lot of time with him and worked hard. When the show will be ready to be launched in theatres. I have dedicated the entire 3-4 years to this. We initially gave it the tagline 'Let's start the game of mind', but then we changed its name to 'Let's start magic'. In a way it works magic on people's minds.

What was the most magical moment in your life?

-When I was young, I had decided that I would become an actor, if I could not become an actor, I would become a lawyer and if I could not become a lawyer, I would definitely become a businessman. I was in college those days and I asked my father (well-known theater artist Arvind Joshi) for a script. We rehearsed and prepared a play based on that script in college. I directed it. It was a comedy play, named Ulti Ganga. As soon as the play started, people started laughing loudly. At first we thought that people were making fun of us and laughing, but later we realized that they were laughing at the comedy of our play. That was a magical moment in my life. It was a revolutionary moment in my life. It was a big thing for the play to be appreciated in that intercollegiate competition. In fact, Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi director Ashok Roy's son Rishi Roy was also present in that play

Your father Arvind Joshi was a well-known actor of Gujarati films, while your father-in-law Prem Chopra was a famous villain of Bollywood. What did you learn from both of them?

-What I learned from my father is that he never went into a comfort zone with his work, he was always happy and excited about his work. He never compromised with his work. I learned my passion for art and craft from him. Many times when his play did not get a good response, he never blamed the audience. He used to work harder on his play. I remember, it was the beginning of my theatre. It was a Gujarati play and both my father and I were in it. During the staging of the same play, my grandfather passed away. But father worked in that play after performing the last rites of grandfather. It was very sad for me, as I was very close to my grandfather. But just imagine, how difficult it must have been for my father, but he continued the show and taught me the same. I learned humility from father-in-law Prem Chopra ji. Despite working in the industry for 30-40 years, he did not lose his humility. He is still down to earth.

What was the turning point in your career?

-There were many turns in my life. One film after another. My first film Godmother won five National Awards. Director N Chandra saw that film and cast me for Style. Raju Hirani ji liked my work in Style and later he cast me in 3 Idiots for this reason. Well, after that many films like Rang De Basanti, Golmaal started. But not only for all of us but for me also '3 Idiots' was a very special film, because after this film I got recognition as my name i.e. Sharman Joshi.