10 years of Jolly LLB: Saurabh Shukla recalls how Jolly LLB helped him interested in acting again

On 10 years of Jolly LLB, Saurabh Shukla remembers winning a National Award for his performance and adds Jolly LLB gave hope to people as it was inspiring

For actor Saurabh Shukla, Jolly LLB (2013) is a special film as it brought him back to acting. Even after films like Bandit Queen (1994), Satya (1998) and others, he wasn’t getting good enough roles. “I was going through a phase in my career where people would say I am a good actor but wouldn’t give me meaty roles. And that’s why I had decided to stick to writing and didn’t want to take up any acting job,” he recalls.

Saurabh Shukla

But then Barfi (2012) and Jolly LLB happened and changed the course of his career. He elaborates, “Subhash (Kapoor; director) shared the script of Jolly with me, and he offered the role of a judge to me, my face fell as I thought that the role wouldn’t be much. But after the narration, I changed my mind as the script didn’t depict the judge as a cardboard character. I told him, ‘Koi aur nahi karega yeh role. You will not go to any other actor’. I had a great time shooting for the film and people loved the film and my character, which got me a National Award. That’s how I got interested again in acting.”

Looking back at winning the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the film, Shukla admits that awards are “encouraging though validation is a bad word” but he feels “the high of performing on set is unmatched”. “You feel on top of the world when you get an award as it reconfirms your belief and choices. Yet having said that, the truth is that while performing a scene is an adrenaline rush that can’t be matched by anything else. That is the real deal. On another note, what I loved about the film is that it didn’t end on a low note. It gave hope to people and was inspiring,” he ends.