Bank of talent

At a Marathilanguage comedy show several years ago veteran actor Ashok Saraf appeared as guest along with fellow actor Sachin Pilgaonkar The host told Saraf that he was responsible for a bank opening up in his village How so ldquoEveryone thinks you have to work in a bank to become Ashok Sarafrdquo the host quipped ldquoand thatrsquos all that the youth in my village ever didrdquoThe 66yearold veteran was conferred the Maharashtra Bhushan award earlier this week much to the delight of crores of fans everywhere And a certain section of actors too watched the news with gleemdasheveryone who ostensibly held respectable albeit homely jobs in government banks but slipped out after the teller closed to pursue starry dreamsFor countless aspiring and upcoming actors in the late 80s and early 90smdashbefore banks were corporatised and the system allowed much more latitudemdasha job at the neighbourhood branch was sought after not just for stability ldquoIt was like a quotardquo says actor Shivaji Satam who started out at the Central Bank of India in 1973 ldquoGovernment banks would hire those who excelled at drama competitions just like sports quota in college or the Railways And it helped that all of us were fuelled by passion not minding the dual work long hours sudden travel for tours and modest payrdquoAshok Saraf who was honoured with a Maharashtra Bhushan last month started at the State Bank of IndiaSatam shared screenspace with Saraf in the 2018 crime thriller Mi Shivaji Park and was the face of hit serial CID for years while appearing frequently in Marathi and Hindi cinemaldquoBanks were overflowing with staffers back in the 80srdquo says actor Jaywant Wadkar whom we last saw in Shiv Sena leader Anand Dighersquos biopic Dharmaveer ldquoThere would literally be seven to 10 extra employees in every department and we had nothing to do Plus we were already active in the theatre circuit and our managers knew about our dreams Unless it was a really busy day theyrsquod happily allow us to go to rehearsals or showsrdquoWadkarrsquos story is shared by countless others from his generation such as Vijay Patkar Vijay Kadam Pradeep Patwardhan and Amol Palekar to name a few Wadkar tells us that Palekar acted in Rajnigandha and Chhoti Si Baat while being an employee at Bank of India same as him Not just men there was also a slew of female actors as well as some writer and directors who started out as bankers we learnVijay Kadam Vijay Pakar and Shivaji SatamBudding stalwarts Patkar and Kadam were Wadkarrsquos colleagues All of them had already nourished the acting bug at school and college more actively in the latter for the benefit of directors would come to recruit fresh talent ldquoMy first play was while in kindergartenrdquo Kadam whose last big screen appearance was in Anurag Kashyaprsquos Kennedy tells us ldquoBy the time I was in Class V my teachers had recognised my talent and by the end of college I directed plays for intercollegiate festivals From there to commercial theatre was but a small steprdquoKadam first broke onto the Hindi film industry with Tiger an eponymous serial on Door Darshan centered around a private detective Kadam played his trusty sidekick a resourceful man who could procure or facilitate anything aptly called GenieThe same held true for Patkar who acted with Wadkar in the 1988 hit Tezaab Both starred as members of Anil Kapoorrsquos merry band of loafers Patkar is still remembered as Krack to Boman Iranirsquos Jack for the salted biscuit brand commerials ldquoThe only conditionrdquo he chuckles ldquowas that we make our bank proud at the annual interbank drama competitions And for exactly this reason banks were happy to take on as many stage actors as possible Theyrsquod get bragging rights for every successful actor on their rosterrdquoIn the 1980s nationalised banks preferred hiring actors who would make them proud at interbank drama competitions like Patkar in this pictureThis was important to the banks as well as the actors For the actors it was part of their path to success The victories at competitions brought small articles in newspapers which directors and producers looked for It also let them network with other actors and theatre personalitiesPatkar who joined Bank of India in 1985 concurs that there were too many employees and too little work in banks of the 1980s unheard of todayldquoIt really was a golden period for actorsrdquo he says ldquoBunking work didnrsquot have as serious consequences then as nowrdquoldquoMy manager would even allow me to come to work earlier than others or stay back later than the rest so that I could make up for the hours taken up by theatre and earn my salaryrdquo Satam recallsAnd despite all the progress and the glamour this crop of stars never forgot their roots And this is not just a symbolic statement Many of them stayed on as employees for years after they became starsldquoAre you kidding merdquo Wadkar exclaims when we ask why he didnrsquot quit after his first big break ldquoI was the master of reconciliation the practice of balancing an account statement in my branch in Fort When I applied for voluntary retirement in 2000 my manager called me up to ask me if I had lost my mindrdquoDid fame affect workldquoYes but not negativelyrdquo Wadkar laughs ldquoMy branch would enlist me to collect documents from other banks as they were more willing to oblige me than other employeesrdquoWadkar and Patkar both took voluntary retirement in 2000 while Patwardhan served his full tenure of 60 years before retiring in 2020 He passed away a year later after a brief illnessldquoOf course the reliability of the pay cheque mattered but more than that we owed the bank our fame and successrdquo says Patkar loyallyThis dual life wasnrsquot without its share of problems There were jealous colleagues and sniggering about some employees ldquoearning dual incomesrdquoldquoIt wasnrsquot unwarrantedrdquo says Kadam who took voluntary retirement in 1994 to become a fulltime actor ldquoThere were so many unauthorised leaves that my bosses called for my records The running joke was that it took two peons to carry my roster It was no longer like the olden days when bosses would remind me that it was time to go to rehearsals I read the room and got outrdquoHe proudly tells us that 2024 is his 50th year of being an actorWhat lessons did they learnldquoThat stage is the best place to start actingrdquo says Wadkar promptly ldquoNothing shapes you as an actor like theatre We were luckier than most because we were already acting in school and college before being picked up by commercial theatre directors They honed our talent into a craftrdquoKadam agreesldquoWhen I quit my job I told my family that they donrsquot need to support me financiallyrdquo the indefatigable 66yearold tells us ldquoAnd I have kept my word Theatre trained me like nothing else At times Irsquove walked onto a set for an audition only to be told that the script has changed and still taken the set by storm at the first take I still get calls from people who have watched Kennedy at various film festivals since it released last year even though I havenrsquot attended a single screening myselfrdquoAs Satam puts it ldquoWe are theatre actors first The screen just happened to usrdquo