Skip to main content

Renuka Shahane on her childhood and more


I met Renuka Shahane last year when she was in the city to promote her directorial venture 'Rita'.


---
It's hard to believe that the demure and soft-spoken Renuka Shahane was a 'crazy' teenager or that as a child she used to pick up stray cats and bring them home. Talking to YB about her childhood, Renuka laughs, “My brother and I drove my mother mad by bringing stray cats home everyday. It didn't last very long because my mother put her foot down.”
A student of King George School (now Shri Chatrapati Shivaji High School), Renuka as a child spoke Telugu and not Marathi. “My father was in the Indian Navy and we were stationed at Vishakhapatnam port. I spoke Telgu till I was five. Only after returning to Mumbai I learnt to speak Marathi. Now, of course, I am extremely fluent in the language,” says the popular TV star.
Renuka who had dabbled in Marathi theatre as a student never intended to become an actress.
“I was very fond of children and I wanted to become a Child Psychologist. I had finished my MA in Clinical Psychology and wanted to do my Phd in Child Psychology, but before I could fill the form, Circus, the television serial happened. The director of the serial and my mentor, Aziz Mirza told me that my calling lay in acting,” she says.
Renuka then turned her attention towards acting, but she has managed to retain her love for children and her interest in psychology.
“I cut down on my work because of my two kids, Shauryaman and Satyendra. My mother was always around when my brother and I were growing up, dropping us to school, packing our dabbas, making us complete our homework. I had a very normal childhood and that's what I want the same for my kids too,” concludes Renuka with a smile.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Portrait of a poet

This has already been published in the Sunday supplement. Krishnaji Keshav Damle also known as Keshavsut --- Poetry never really appealed to me. And, so it was with great reluctance that I agreed to my husband's plan to visit Keshavsut Smarak – a memorial raised in memory of 'Father of Modern Marathi Poetry', Krishnaji Keshav Damle – in Malgund. We were in Ganapatipule at that time and decided to go to Malgund, a 10-minute drive (a kilometre) from the popular tourist destination. A sign-post told us to take a left turn and what greeted us, at the end of the lane, was tranquil silence. No security guards, no tourists, just a plaque announcing that Damle, popularly known as Keshavsut, was born in the red-roofed house, surrounded by green shrubbery. Keshavsut's house in Malgund  A poem by Keshavsut  The house, renovated in the old style, was near-empty, except for Keshavsut's portrait that was hanging from the wall in the front room. In the
Post a Comment
Read more

Many ideas of ‘self’ (Review of Pratibimb, Marathi play)

With Mahesh Elkunchwar’s name as a writer associated with Pratibimb (Reflection), you know nothing in the play will be at face value. Nothing is what it seems. It is difficult for commoners to get into Elkunchwar’s mindspace, which is precisely the subject of the Marathi play, which was staged earlier in August and will now be performed again on Friday, September 15 at Sudarshan Rangmanch, Shaniwar Peth. While watching the play, it’s evident that the viewer has to peel various layers to get to the core of the story — Who are you? What does ‘self-identity’ mean? Is it so bad if your reflection goes missing or if you have no identity? Thokale (a white-collared office goer) wakes up one morning and finds his reflection missing. Enters Bai, his landlady, who tries to assure him that nothing is lost. In fact, it could be a ‘breaking news’ for the newspaper. This perhaps could have led to a lot of chaos physically. Instead, we are led to the darkness looming large in our dystopian minds
Post a Comment
Read more

Valu and more

Visited Poman Pimpale village where Marathi picture Valu was shot. --- Documentary la chala… came the shout and Poman Pimpale villagers slowly started gathering at the village square. The children were already there, jostling each other, eager to see the ‘documentary’ – Marathi film Valu, which was shot in this village, some 14 kms away from Saswad. On the occasion of the film completing 50 successful days, the cast and crew of Valu, decided to host a special screening for the villagers on Saturday as a tribute. As Umesh Kulkarni, the director of Valu says, “ The movie is a collaborative venture of the villagers and myself. Valu is theirs as much as it is mine.” You just need to mingle with the crowd to find out what Umesh says is true - it’s their movie that the villagers have gathered to see. Pradeep Poman, a village elder, says that they enjoyed the whole film making process. “It had become a past time for us. Whenever we had some time to spare, we just went to see the shooting.
Post a Comment
Read more