It's a new adventure

For the Marathi audience, Prashant Damle is a household name. Known for his hit Marathi plays Eka Lagnachi Ghosht and Gela Madhav Kunikade, for which he holds the record of staging over 10,700 shows, Prashant is known for his terrific comic timing. The actor is now all set to impress the Hindi viewers with his upcoming show Chandrakant Chiplunkar Seedi Bambawala. For the show, the actor has bid adieu to theatre that he has been a part of for more than three decades. "I have officially closed down all my plays for the serial. I found the story powerful and my character very tempting. A fire fighter, he never says no to anybody and that creates a lot of chaos leading to hilarious situations," says Prashant, who had made his Hindi TV debut with Filmi Chakkar aeons ago.

Chandrakant Chiplunkar... will also mark the Hindi TV debut of Kavita Lad who shares a great chemistry with Prashant. The hit pair has done several Marathi plays and films together. Ask Prashant if it was his idea to get her and he says, "I got the offer first and director Dharmesh Mehta thought that since Kavita and I have a good tuning he should cast her." Prashant has done several Marathi serials and reality shows like Sa Re Ga Ma, which he won and is currently hosting a cookery show Amhi Saare Khavaiyua. Ask him if he is fond of cooking and the actor laughs, "I love eating as well as cooking. I experiment with all my vegetables trying different permutations and combinations."

Ask him what prompted him to say goodbye to theatre, his first love and Prashant explains that if he had continued for another three-four years, he would have reached a saturation point. "Now is the perfect time to try something new. I look at it as an adventure," says the Eka Lagnachi Gosht actor. For TV, Prashant says he has to tone down his expressions and speak in a normal voice. "On stage, one has to be a little loud in expressions and dialogue delivery as we have to reach the last person in the hall. One also does a little mockery in comedy there, but TV doesn't need that. The purest and subtlest humour gets conveyed excellently," he explains. However, being used to acting for three hours at a stretch on stage, Prashant is still getting a hang of switching on and off for TV. "It was difficult initially - to shoot a scene, stop and again get back, but now I have got used to it," he smiles.