Nitish Bharadwaj

Nitish Bharadwaj
Born (1963-06-02) 2 June 1963
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Residence Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Nationality Indian
Occupation Actor, director, producer, screenwriter
Years active 1987- present

Nitish Bharadwaj (Hindi: नितीश भारद्वाज; born 2 June 1963) is an Indian film actor, director, screenwriter and former member of the Indian Parliament Lok Sabha.[1] He is best known for his portrayal of Lord Krishna in B. R. Chopra's television series Mahabharat, as well as for his portrayal of several Avatars of Vishnu in some of Chopra's other works, such as Vishnu Puran.[2][3] His debut directorial film in Marathi titled Pitruroon has won him accolades from both the audiences and critics and he now focuses on his film career entirely through screenwriting, directing and acting.

Career

Theatre & Radio

Nitish started his arts career with his training in Marathi theatre as a Director, under many stalwarts such as Late Sudha Karmarkar, Dr. Kashinath Ghanekar and Prabhakar Panshikar. He then moved on to Professional Marathi theatre with Sai Paranjapye and later shifted to Hindi theatre on sound advice from his friend Ravi Baswani. Ravi was, in fact, instrumental in getting Nitish from Marathi to the nation-wide Hindi arena and Nitish has always acknowledged Ravi's contribution to his life. He worked with a thespian of Hindi theatre named Dinesh Thakur and performed in many of his plays till 1987. He later did a Hindi mythological play titled Chakravyuh, in which he reappears as Lord Krishna, the role he has mastered in the old Mahabharat. Though the play depicts the story of Abhimanyu's martyrdom, it brings out various issues out of the same story which are relevant to today's times. Chakravyuh is one of the most successful plays of Hindi Theatre in 2015 and has already had around 75 showings across India, including some prestigious theatre festivals like the Kala Ghoda Festival, Mumbai. Nitish also performed in a musical theatre production titled Moti Roti Patli Chunni (1993), with a renowned theatre in London (UK) named "Theatre Royal Stratford East". This play won the "London Time Out Dance & Performance Award" and toured across Britain and Canada.

Nitish also did 2 radio shows for BBC Radio 4 (London, UK), namely Bhagvad Geeta and Ramayan. He was nominated for the "Sony Radio award" for Ramayan in the UK in 1995.

Television and films

Nitish Bharadwaj has starred in many Marathi movies such as Khatyal Sass Natal Soon, Nasheebwan, Anapekshit, Pasanta Ahe Mulgi, Trishagi (with Nana Patekar) and the highly acclaimed Malayalam movie Njan Gandharvan, (1991) directed by P. Padmarajan. He directed a historical TV serial titled Gita Rahasya, Apraadhi for Star TV and a few documentary films.[4] He judged a Marathi dance reality show on ETV Marathi; Jallosh Survanayugacha, with Sudha Chandran and Ramesh Deo. Bharadwaj made his film direction debut in 2013 with a Marathi film starring Tanuja, Suhas Joshi and Sachin Khedekar titled Pitruroon. The film is based on a novella by Sudha Murthy. The film was acclaimed by both the critics and audiences. Pitruroon received many nominations and awards, and also gave Bharadwaj the prestigious Maharashtra State Film Award as the second Best Director of 2013.[2][5][6][7] Bharadwaj played the role of Krishna at the age of 23 and became an overnight star.[8][9]

Politics

Bharadwaj contested the parliamentary elections from Jamshedpur and Rajgarh (in Madhya Pradesh) as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate and was elected to Lok Sabha as a Member of Parliament from Jamshedpur in 1996, by defeating veteran Inder Singh Namdhari.[10] He lost to Laxman Singh (brother of then chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Digvijaya Singh) in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections. He also worked in BJP's organisational unit of Madhya Pradesh and was also its Spokesperson for a while, till he voluntarily retired from active politics.

Personal life

Nitish was born to the late Janardan C. Upadhye, a Senior Advocate of Bombay High Court and a veteran labour lawyer. He was also a close aide of George Fernandes in the labour movement in the 60s and 70s. Nitish's mother, the late Sadhana Upadhye, was the Head of Marathi Literature department in Wilson College, Mumbai. She was an exponent of the Bhagvad Geeta and Gyaneshwari, the knowledge of which she imparted to Nitish from childhood. Nitish was trained as a veterinary surgeon at Bombay Veterinary College, Parel, Mumbai.[4]

In 1991, Nitish Bharadwaj married Monisha Patil, daughter of Vimla Patil, then editor of Femina. They have two children and divorced in 2005.[11][12] Monisha now lives in London with their children. Bharadwaj married Smita Gate, an IAS officer (1992 batch) from Madhya Pradesh cadre, in 2009.[13]

Filmography

Films
  • Trishagni (1988) (with Nana Patekar) [14]
  • Njan Gandharvan (1991, Malayalam)[15]
  • Sangeet (1992) (with Madhuri Dixit)
  • Prem Daan (1991) (with Khushboo)
  • Prem Shakti (1994) (with Govinda, Karishma kapoor)
  • Nacehe Nagin Gali Gali (1991) (with Meenakshi Seshadri)
  • Khatyal Sasu Nathal Soon (1987) (with Varsha Usgaonkar) [16]
  • Pasant Aahe Mulgi (1989) (with Varsha Usgaonkar) [17]
  • Tujhi Majhi Jamli Jodi (1990) (with Nivedita Joshi) [18]
  • Nashibwaan (1988) (with Alka Kubal)
  • Pitruroon (2013) (Writer-Director) [19]
  • Mohenjo Daro (2016) (with Hritik Roshan)
  • Yaksh (awaiting worldwide release) (title role)
  • Kedarnath (in Production)
Television
  • Mahabharat (1988)[20]
  • Geeta Rahasya (producer-Director-Co writer) (with Irrfan Khan)
  • Vishnu Puran (2003)
  • Ramayan (TV Series) (2003) with Smriti Irani as Seeta
  • Man Mein Hai Visshwas (2006-2007, presenter)
  • Ajab Gajab Ghar Jamai (2014, Krishna)

Award nominations

  • Best Director for Pitruroon, Screen Awards, 2014

Awards

  • Best Screenplay Writer for Marathi feature film, Pitruroon, Sahyadri Film Awards, 2014
  • 2nd Best Director for Pitruroon, Maharashtra State Film Awards, 2014
  • 2nd Best Film for Pitruroon, Maharashtra State Film Awards, 2014
  • Tanuja and Sachin Khedekar won Best Actor Screen Awards for Nitish's film Pitruroon, January 2014

References

  1. ↑ Patil, Vimla (17 March 2002). "Mythologicals in Their Modern Avatar". Spectrum. The Sunday Tribune. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  2. 1 2 Pandit, Shruti (10 September 2013). "Nitish Bharadwaj dons the hat of a director". The Times of India. Retrieved 22 March 2013.
  3. ↑ Trivedi, Tanvi (17 October 2013). "Comparisons with Nitish Bharadwaj are most welcome: Saurabh Raaj Jain". The Times of India. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  4. 1 2 Ashraf, Syed Firdaus (10 September 1999). "The Rediff Election Interview / Nitish Bharadwaj". Rediff on the Net. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  5. ↑ "First look of Nitish Bharadwaj's Pitruroon". Rangmarathi. 23 August 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  6. ↑ Swamy, Rohan (21 March 2013). "Krishna's Confessions". The Indian Express. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  7. ↑ Deshmukh, Gayatri (16 February 2013). "Nitish Bharadwaj ropes in Tanuja his directorial debut". The Times of India. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  8. ↑ N, Patcy (22 May 2013). "I DID NOT want to play Krishna in 'Mahabharat'". Rediff Movies. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  9. ↑ Verma, Sukanya (18 September 2012). "Reader's Pick: The 25 GREATEST characters on Indian TV". Rediff Movies. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  10. ↑ Masih, Archana (12 February 1998). "Any party which wants to rule India has to be secular in its true sense". Rediff on the Net. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  11. ↑ Roy, Amit (14 November 2004). "Nitish, Nitish, burning bright". The Telegraph. Calcutta, India. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  12. ↑ "For how many years do you want the adivasis to wear their traditional finery and dance for you?". Rediff on the Net. 13 February 1998. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  13. ↑ Singh, Varun (2010-01-11). "Sanjay Dutt resigs from Samajwadi Party". Mid-day. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  14. ↑ Gulzar; Nihalani, Govind; Chatterjee, Saibal (2003). Encyclopedia of Hindi Cinema. Encyclopædia Britannica (India). Popular Prakashan. p. 554. ISBN 8179910660.
  15. ↑ "State Film Awards". Information & Public Relations Department (I&PRD). 1990. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  16. ↑ "Khatyal Sasu Nathal Soon (1988)". My Marathi Cinema. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  17. ↑ "Pasant Aahe Mulgi (1989)". My Marathi Cinema. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  18. ↑ "Tujhi Majhi Jamli Jodi (1990)". My Marathi Cinema. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  19. ↑ "Pitruroon (2013)". My Marathi Cinema. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  20. ↑ "25 years of BR Chopra's 'Mahabharata': Do you remember these iconic characters?". IBN Live. CNN. 23 April 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.