MEET THE GANDHI OF SHANKARDADA ZINDABAD, WHO TURNS CHIRANJEEVI FROM A GOON TO A GANDHIAN

He was a relatively unknown actor till a couple of years back. But he has given a new definition and a new face to Gandhism in India. The revolution he spawned is so huge that even after a year of the release of Lage Raho Munnabhai, people can't stop preaching the neo-Gandhian's philosophy. That is Dilip Prabhavalkar, who brought about a transformation not only in Sanjay Dutt, but also the very face of protest in India, with his non-violent chat with Munnabhai.

After the release of the film, in many places, especially in the cities, people have started following his philosophy to bring about awareness about the civic responsibility among citizens. And he will soon be seen as the same Gandhi or Bapuji in Shankardada Zindabad.

"Bapu's make-up took more than three hours. I had to have artificial ears, nose, wrinkles, moustache. I am not dark. I am quite fair, so we had to have a tanned look. I had to shave off the hair on my head completely," he says.

What did playing Gandhi's role teach him? "I am very cool by temperament. By playing Bapu, I have imbibed compassion, empathy and benevolence," says the 60-year-old theatre artiste in Marathi.

Was he not scared of playing the role of Gandhi, especially after the world found the best Gandhi in Ben Kinsley? "I was given some tapes and cassettes by Raj Kumar Hirani, the director of the film. I also saw some old Films Division documentaries. Through the films, I realised that Gandhiji used to speak in a monotonous fashion. That is where we took liberties. If we had projected him speaking that way, many could have lost interest. It would have been authentic without being effective. So we changed the tone a little bit."

Prabhavalkar did not stop with watching films, he started reading a la Sanjay Dutt, everythign about Gandhi that he could lay his hands on. "I was greatly helped by a book by an American journalist, Louis Fisher, who called him a saint. This book was like the Bible, the Gita and the Quran for the role."