Janmashtami 2017: Shri Krishna aka Sarvadaman says he hasn’t seen the show till date

With an irreplaceable smile, when actor Sarvadaman D Banerjee narrated couplets from the Bhagavad Gita, for the 90’s Indian television series Shri Krishna, the world outside TV came to a standstill. But, Banerjee says: “I never wanted to do TV. I was working in films because a single shot in a film stays for 100 years. Then, Ramanand Sagar [the creator of the show] called me. I knew this invitation would offer me a role in TV and thus I didn’t want to go. I believed TV isn’t an art; even today it isn’t one.”

When he finally relented to meet Sagar, he found himself in a studio where the set for shoot was ready. “I entered and a stack of papers was handed over to me saying, ‘These are your dialogues...’ I tried to run away, but then Ramanand Sagar turned up and the rest is history.”

Sarvadaman D Banerjee in a still from the show Shri Krishna.

The show that went on-air post the cult series, Ramayana, was initially supposed to run for 2-3 years. “And it ran for 10 years! I shot the entire serial in a state of meditation. I signed the show in 1990 and by 1994, with the rising popularity of the show rising, I felt that an atom bomb had fallen into my bedroom. But till date, I have never bothered to see the show,” says the actor.

He feels his “karmic potli” was over post Shri Krishna, and hence he didn’t get much work. “After a few years of shooting Shri Krishna, I once asked Sagar: When will you direct me? He said: Whenever I see you, I see the supreme, so I just end up folding my hands. There’s isn’t a better compliment that a director can give.”

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