Ramesh Bhat met Shankar Nag in 1970, when he was doing theatre in Bengaluru. The duo went on be best buddies in real life. Even on screen, they shared a great rapport with Ramesh working in Shankar’s films like Nodi Swamy Navu Irodu Heege, as a police officer in Accident and Minchina Ota, both directed by Shankar Nag.
Ramesh, who started acting in theatre groups like Nataranga and Benaka, went on to work with Shankar Nag’s Sanket and then progressed to films. The actor, who has acted in over 300 films and also TV serials, talks about his friend, philosopher and guide — Shankar Nag.
I was fortunate to have had a friend like Shankar Nag. I have not come across anyone in my life like him. Even after he has gone, no one has been able to replace him. I believe he was an exclusive creation, specially created by God. I can never see anything negative in him.
The way we met is an interesting story. I have been doing theatre for almost 50 years. In the 70s Shankar wanted to do theatre in Bengaluru and was looking for some people to start a group. Someone recommended my name to him and the group was named Sanket. The rest is history.
I met Shankar during my theatre days. He became a hero with the film Ondanondu Kaladalli. It was the introduction of a great spark for the Kannada film industry. Everyone wanted him after that. He was called ‘karate king’ and that one film catapulted him to fame and he became a star and won the National Award.
In his heart, he was also a theatre person and wanted to do theatre here. Our first play was Anju Mallige. Our friendship started there and continued till he passed away. I feel blessed for he loved me as a friend and our friendship grew with time and we were together for around 29 years.
I was with him at every step of his career and life. He had style and every thing he did had a touch of class. He would always snap his fingers when deep in thought. Every time he would do that we would know that he was up to something.
His work appealed to the classes and the masses — be it in theatre or films. A perfect example of that is Malgudi Days for which I worked as an associate director, even though I had no knowledge of the English or Hindi language. He had faith in me just because I would keep everything ready for him.
He also literally lived in his car. He had a type writer, book and food in his car. So, he would read, write scripts or type in his car. He also loved to have people around him all the time and would look for a reason to have a party in his house.
Shankar was a go-getter. If he was determined to do something, he would do it. When we did the play Nagamandala, we realised just five days before the show that there were were no songs in the play. Immediately, he called Gopal Vajpayee from Hubli and made him write 11 songs for the play. Then he went to C Ashwath and got him to compose the music, made us rehearse for it and we presented the play with 11 songs in five days!
He was also a man who thought ahead of his time. We think only about the ‘now’. We don’t even think of dinner during breakfast time. But Shankar saw far ahead of his time. Just three years before his fatal accident, he told me he was not happy just singing songs and running around trees. But wanted to do something for society. Something that our children will love and remember us for. ‘It will be shame to tell my kids that I was successful as an actor and not as a human being and not contributing to the society’, he would say.
So, he started the country club, got a survey done for metro trains and came up with low cost housing — these were the last projects he took up. But before that happened, we lost him.
Auto drivers too celebrate his birthday each year. Their association started with his film Auto Raja, where he acted as an auto driver. His acting won the hearts of every auto driver and you will see many autos have Shankar’s image.
In villages too, you will find auto stands named after him. This only shows his popularity is increasing day-by-day.
I feel that the government or cinema has not done anything in his memory. Even his Sanket Studio has stopped. I feel bad about it. But his wife, Arundhati keeps him alive with Rangashankara. There is not a day that it does not stage a play. The activities there gives us a feeling that Shankar is still with us.
As told to Shilpa Sebastian R