During the entire month of Shravan, you see him walking barefoot. You spot him planting saplings during green drives. You see him walking along the banks of River Godavari in Nashik with environment activists who are fighting against river pollution and for river rejuvenation. You see him on the small and big screen displaying his talent.
Actor Chinmay Udgirkar has many facets to his personality.
When he was made the ambassador of River Godavari rejuvenation project by environment activists, he asserted that he would work for the cause of the river as a volunteer and not as a celebrity just for namesake or for the sake of a face to the cause. His take on this was that he grew up in the city of Godavari, spent his formative years and youth by the banks of the pristine and then clean river, hence he owed it to Mother Godavari.
On the professional front he discovered his passion by chance. Never did this mischievous little boy or his well-educated family dream that what started off on stage during Ganesh Utsav would become his passion and career.
From the mischievous little boy to a commendable and versatile Marathi actor, Chinmay Udgirgar’s journey and transformation has been fascinating. His persistent efforts to keep on improving himself on the personal, professional and social front has been remarkable. Today, he is a youth icon.
Traversing down the memory lane, Chinmay shares, “I had the inclination towards acting since childhood. It all began with Ganesh Utsav when I was in class IV. Our society used to organise very good community Ganesh Festival where public/open competitions were held. I portrayed the central character Bandu, in a very nice one-act play, Banducha Abhyas. Since childhood I was very mischievous and so was Bandu’s character. Hence, I could portray the character naturally. And that was the first time that I was appreciated for my work. Till then I was looked upon as a very mischievous boy.”
With ‘Bandu’ being recognised, Chinmay felt proud of himself for being appreciated. It was then that he decided to participate in plays as much as he could. He started taking part in inter-school drama competitions and bagged many prizes. The prizes encouraged him.
“I realised that acting fetched me prizes and appreciation. Then for the sake of appreciation I began acting in more plays. I began getting chance for solo competitions as well. Confidence soared high due to the prizes. Gradually, I felt that I should take acting seriously and should get formal training in acting. There was an organisation in Nashik, Swapnashala, run by Vivek Garud. I took admission in that institute and started learning to act,” Chinmay reflects.
When he was in standard X, he discontinued acting for a brief period, but it remained at the back of his mind. After passing standard XII, he took admission in law college so that he could pursue acting because in law college lectures were not compulsory.
“I began spending lot of time in Pravin Kalokhe’s Genius organisation and became active in parallel theatre. There I did lot of plays – Aamcha Var Kon Prem Karnar, Rakta Pushp, Buddhibai Jhabbu, to name a few. These plays received good appreciation on experimental theatre and my name also began to be recommended as a good actor from Nashik,” he recollects fondly.
While learning to act in plays at Genius, he became used to taking theatre/plays seriously. It became an inseparable part of his life and he realised that acting was his hobby and that what he used to do to get appreciation from people became a passion.
“I could see myself only as an actor. I could not see myself as a doctor, an engineer or as anything else. So, I decided to make my career in acting. But with no family background in acting, I was apprehensive about how to get into the industry, whether I should venture into it in the first place, should I take the risk and how I should go about it. I, therefore, decided to continue with theatre and wait for destiny to give me the opportunity to work in serials and films,” said Chinmay.
His family though supportive, put forth a condition that he should complete his degree in law first. He obeyed them and completed the five-year law course while simultaneously acting in theatre.
“And I was so lucky that things turned out in my favour, just like Shah Rukh Khan’s dialogue in the Hindi film Om Shanti Om – “When the desire is strong enough, the entire universe conspires to give you what you want”. I completed my law degree and there was this reality show called Maharashtracha Super Star in Zee TV where I was called for audition. I got selected among the first 24 contestants and performed as per the requirement of the show. I got eliminated in the last round. It hit me hard that I was eliminated because I could not perform as expected. I felt bad particularly because I was doing very well in parallel theatre but was rejected at the commercial platform. This made me think very seriously about what improvement I needed. While giving auditions once again, I got a role in Star Pravaha’s Swapnacha Palikade. It was a mega hit that time. It went on for four years. Shreyas Patkar’s character became so popular that people even now know me as Shreyas. Then immediately I got Nanda Saukhya Bhare and Ghadge & Suun. In nine years, I did these three serials back-to-back. All the three serials super-duper hit. While doing Swapnacha Palikade I got a role in the film, Shyamcha Wadil for which I bagged the best debutant award. I also got the confidence of working on big screen,” shared the versatile actor.
In a span of nine years, he worked in three serials and six films in variety of roles. He began to be recognised as a versatile actor. The journey became even more interesting for this actor who was finally getting roles that he desired.
“Now I am into web series. Tik Tak To web series was released recently. It got good response from the audience. I did a film last year, Prem Vari which bagged good reviews. Recently, I did a film with Rinku Rajguru, Makeup which was appreciated very well. Besides, the film Gulab Jal with Sonali Kulkarni also got good reviews,” said the bubbly actor.
Content with whatever came his way he emphasised that he was making slow and steady progress, climbing the ladder step by step.
Since Chinmay’s family has no background in the entertainment industry, his family had made it clear to him – Whatever you are doing, accept it with all loopholes. What you have in your career today, you may not have tomorrow. So, you should be able to withstand it. You have to maintain mental fitness for battling your emotional struggles.
But Chinmay was determined to prove himself and make himself and his family proud. The pressures that he faced were different from others.
Elaborating on this he said, “Being from a well-to-do family, I never had the stress of earning for bread and butter. Basic survival was never the problem. But I wanted to do something at par with the calibre of my family. My mother is a lawyer, my father a banker and older brother an engineer. They were all well-settled. If I did not rise up to their level, then there would be no logic for me to make a career in this field. This was a different kind of pressure for me. I had to get good work always. I did not have any excuse. Or else I would be a misfit in my family.”
The actor revealed that initially, he used to feel extremely pressurised but gradually he understood how to release that tension and how to focus on work and the outcome is here for all to see.
The journey was no cakewalk for Chinmay. It was constant hard work through ups and downs while making his career and progressing in it, perfecting his performance, working towards his personal development.
“In my field, one has to constantly confront oneself everyday being faced with a new role. I have to always check if there is anything similar in me to the character that I am playing. This made me realise the loopholes very easily. Earlier I used to be scared of those loopholes. I was doubtful if I would be able to overcome them. I began getting frustrated. I had a feeling that I would go into depression. But then I realised that unless I accepted myself the way I am I will not be able to improve on myself,” said the actor.
Now, while doing every role he realises his loopholes and immediately begins working on it. Owing to this he realised that after working on these loopholes a little bit of self-talk can work wonders. Fear, complexes, mental blocks, insecurities gradually disappeared.
The transformation that happened then went a long way in transforming his entire personality. From a mischievous child, to an impulsive youngster he became a composed person ready to face anything that came his way, calmly.
“Whatever problems I had about relationships and other conflicts went away…meaning, I became free. This freedom reflected in my performances as well and I began feeling very content with this freedom. So, I was never worried about whether people loved me or not. It was always about whether I performed well or not. With this being realised, I became joyful. My career now is all about love, passion, happiness, and satisfaction,” said Chinmay.
Getting into skin of character was, however, difficult initially for him. Every project that he did he felt that the character was difficult. But his constant pursuit of self-development helped him get into the skin of the character, no matter how different it was from the other characters.
“The character, Shreyas Patkar was a chawl resident while in Nanda Saukhya Bhare, the character I played was exactly opposite. He was from a rich family. In Ghadge & Suun the hero was introvert and he turned up doing things in a way he never planned. While doing all these roles I felt that these characters were nowhere close to my nature,” admitted Chinmay.
He had his own fears of being rejected due to repetition as in daily soaps, the actors are seen every day and Chinmay has been doing daily soaps for nine years. He used to worry if people would get bored of seeing the same thing again and again and consequently reject him.
“But when I started seeing myself in each character and working on the loopholes, I focused on my satisfaction with my work. When I started doing everything happily, people started loving the role and began liking me more,” said a composed Chinmay.
The dedicated actor is a die-hard environment activist and deep into spirituality.
Sharing his love for the environment and spiritual inclination, he says that his family was always spiritual. He was always taught – Whatever you do, look within.
“So, during those days of frustration and struggle when I was not getting roles on the screen, I used to act on the stage. I was also studying law then. I used to go to the banks of Godavari River with my friends. By the side of the holy Ramkund we used to discuss about our struggles, we would dream of getting good work and River Godavari was a witness to all this. It was as though she was listening. It may sound silly but when I got acting offers in Mumbai, I felt Godavari that meets the sea in Mumbai must have conveyed the message to it to give me a break since I am her child,” Chinmay shares with passion and devotion both.
He reveals that he used to always bow down to Godavari every time and was aware that he had to give back to the river since he owed a lot to Her.
“But I got the opportunity to work for Godavari when environmentalist Rajesh Pandit approached me. It was the onset of Kumbh Mela in 2014-15 and they were planning to observe Harit Kumbh (Green Kumbh). He asked if I would work for it and I told him that I would work as an activist not as a celebrity. While working for Green Kumbh project I met Magsaysay Award Winner and India’s Waterman Rajendra Singh from whom I learnt the mantra – When you work for Mother Nature, she takes care of you. And I experienced it. As I started working for Godavari my personal problems, family issues, career problems began getting resolved automatically. So, my faith in this work strengthened even more. From what started with cleaning the river, we are now we in the process of rejuvenating it so that water flows continuously,” Chinmay said.
He elaborated that there are natural springs in the riverbed which have been concealed with concrete and this restricts the flow of water. “Hence it was essential to remove the concrete and we won this case. Natural ponds and streams will rejuvenate when the aquifers are free of the concrete.”
The spiritual environment in his family prompted him to walk bare feet during the month of Shravan.
“It is said that one should not wear footwear in Shravan. During Chatur Maas one should not consume onion and garlic. I feel all these things should be experimented to strengthen our minds. Hence, it was not due to religious belief or blind faith that I observe such practices. I decided to check for a one month if I could manage without wearing footwear and during Shravan no one will even question me. You should be able to get rid of the shame and inhibitions of your mind because tomorrow any adverse situation may arise. It is we who put barriers in our minds that we cannot do a certain thing. I had also planned to use one bucket of water every day for one year for my daily activities and I was able to do it,” shared the actor.
He has been doing different experiments since the past 5-6 years. It all started after he read Mahatma Gandhi’s book My Experiments with Truth. He began experimenting a lot on himself because he loved the idea. For one month every year, he does such experiments and every experience gives him a different kind of satisfaction, most importantly, it has taught him to keep his mind under control.
An ardent reader, traveller and movie buff, Chinmay decided not to go to sleep unless he reads at least for 15 minutes no matter how late it is in the night.
“Of late, I also started reading astrology, tarot, numerological science and all that our Indian culture has given to us. I have started studying these sciences as a hobby,” Chinmay shared.
Describing himself in the tarot language, he said that there is a card in Tarot called Hermit which he identifies with. It is a man with a lamp in his hand in the dark.
“I feel that of late I changed. Earlier I used to react to everything. Now with age and maturity my attention is more into my inner self. Some things are not in our hands. For example, the other day an aunt, a family friend passed away. I was very close to her. Soon a family doctor who used to treat me since childhood, passed away. The external reaction would have been – How and Why this happened. I should have been devastated, los,t disturbed but I accepted the fact in the face of such tragedies that this is going to happen to everyone. I can say I have become positively introvert,” the actor said.
He feels that today’s youth are more into 4 G, 5G, 6G….and are moving very fast to keep pace with the fast-paced world and lifestyle in general. With technology, the world has come very close and people feel like discovering new things every day but in the process, they fail to realise that they are completely lost and what they exactly want.
“I feel that without any reason we have unknowingly created a competition. I want to give only one message to the youth – are you truly happy/content with the speed with which you are running about? Are you peaceful? You need to introspect seriously before it is too late, instead of getting carried away. Life was very peaceful during our parent’s time. After graduation, people took up a job in a bank or private office. Now the thirst is to earn more. By the time you achieve what you wanted you cannot enjoy it because many things would have been lost by then. For 10 years I am working continuously in the industry. I earned a name but lost many things. I lost many friends, gave up some hobbies. I used to go out in the open and have fun, eat paani puri with friends, play pranks which made me happy I miss all these,” admitted Chinmay.
He urges the youth not to fall prey to this fast life because the world will move according to their speed. Even the learned said – You are the world. So do not get carried away. If you peaceful the world will be peaceful. If you in hurry, the world will be in a hurry. “So do not get into the mad rush, do not get into the competition created by parents, do not lose inner peace. Work on your mind for 20 minutes by meditating just like you work on your body,” he signs off.
