Thread by @ksinamdar

As Urmila Matondkar enters politics, here is a little trivia. First, I wish Urmila all the best for her foray into electoral politics.
One of the reasons I am in this field is Urmila Matondkar.
I was in my first year BA, confused if I should appear for civil+

services examinations or enter the field of journalism. On and off I did some mimicry skits (what people call stand up comedy now - only funnier!) one of my English professors saw my act and asked me to act in an English one act play. Urmila was one year senior to me & a student+

+ of the English department. She was also an accomplished actor at the time due to her debut in Masoom and Narsimha by N. Chandra just released or about to release.
I was nervous because I would be acting in a play for the first time. I was playing 6 characters of varying age+

+ groups and hence I had worked on my posture, voice and also my accent which was in reality pukka desi. We performed the play in the University Youth Festival and Urmila was one among the audience. After the play she came into the green room, and congratulated me on my good+

+ performance. In fact she was very encouraging and said ‘you were fantastic’. With her compliment, I admit that I was in seventh heaven and considered a career in acting! So, I entered the Marathi drama circuit in our college which was quite active. However when I realised +

+ that there were fantastic actors like @sumrag and Suchitra Bandekar there, my confidence took a dip, in spite of Urmila’s sincere compliments! I realised my limitations. But the theatre bug had stung me and there was no going back. With a genius playwright like Chetan Datar +

+ to mentor me, I lingered in the group first as a backstage artist, then a chorus singer and finally as a writer of one act plays. From there how I made the shift to music is a different story. वो कहानी फिर सही!