Veteran actor Sayaji Shinde has been garnering amazing reviews for his performance of Arvind Shetty in Abhishek Chaubey’s new dark comedy series Killer Soup, which debuted on Netflix India on Thursday. He portrays Prabhakar Shetty’s older brother, who is portrayed by Manoj Bajpayee, the main actor.
Here are five things you should know about the seasoned singer Sayaji, who is 65 today:
Humble background
Sayaji grew up in the Sakharwadi village in the Satara district of Maharashtra, where she was born into a family of farmers. His first employment paid him ₹165 a month to serve as a watchman for the irrigation department of the Maharashtra government.
Marathi theatre stint
Sayaji began her performing career in Marathi theater. After beginning to perform one-act plays in 1978, he gained recognition for his work in pieces such as Amchya Ya Gharat (1991), One Room Kitchen (1987), and Zulva (1987). After then, he started performing in Marathi movies.
Maiden project in Bollywood
It’s interesting to note that Sayaji’s Killer Soup co-star Manoj Bajpayee suggested the actor to Ram Gopal Varma after reading a story on him in a reputable national daily. Sayaji was chosen by the director for his 1999 action-crime movie Shool. He later went on to star in Bollywood movies like Vaastu Shashtra (2003), Sarkar Raj (2008), and Sanju (2018).
Brilliance in the South
In the 2000 Tamil film Barathi, directed by Gnana Rajasekaran, Sayaji made his breakthrough as the well-known poet and writer from Tamil Nadu, Subramanya Bharathi. Later on, he dabbled in Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and Tamil filmmaking.
Role in Killer Soup
In conversation with Mid-Day, the actor said , “I judge a director quickly on what kind of script he has. But Abhishek (Chaubey) is such a talented director. It was so difficult to judge him because the script kept me hooked. Even after I returned home from the narration, I kept thinking about the characters. We all realised that it was denser than our imagination.”
