Meeting a Police Officer and an actor ….


It was sometime in 1987. The biggest epic serial ‘Ramayan’ was coming to an end and shooting of another epic ‘Mahabharat’ made by great film maker B.R.Chopra was in progress. Those days, I used to visit Film City, Goregaon, every Saturday afternoon, to interview some of the artistes. I began with the legend B.R.Chopra and then with the kind cooperation extended by the casting director cum actor Gufi Paintal, even managed to interview Nitish Bharadwaj, who played Lord Krishna & Mukesh Khanna , who played Bhishma Pitamah. Nitish was already into Marathi films those days, playing lead roles; but Mukesh Khanna wasn’t that popular, being a stage artist and small time TV star.Sagar salunke

While I was talking to Mukesh after we finished our talk and having tea together, a well dressed handsome actor joined us, speaking fluent Hindi. He said ‘Hello’ and introduced himself as Sagar Salunke. He possessed a very good  personality and after knowing that he was playing the character of Balram in this serial, I just took his phone number and agreed to speak to him next day or any convenient Sunday at his residence in Santacruz. It was only after I met him at his old bungalow style quarters, next to Santacruz Police station that I came to know that he was a Police Officer. Sagar was living all alone in that house, as his family lived in Nagpur. So, we spoke for about two hours.Sagar Homepage

His passion for acting and singing impressed me, as he also played some recorded cassettes besides  singing few songs from Hindi films and Ghazals. “It is only because of people like Prakash Mehra and B.R.Chopra that I am finding roles in films. Whenever I do acting  assignments with them, they acquire  necessary permission from my Police department and top officials in Police are  kind enough to offer me posting in Special Branch CID, instead of  local Police stations,” he said.

Sagar did perform very well in Mahabharat serial and had a big role in continuity. Later he performed in many films like ‘Zindagi Ek Jua’, ‘Gair Kanooni’ and so on. He was also seen in B.R.Chopra’s another serial ‘Sauda’ on freedom fighters.  Thereafter, I got involved with my work and he too was busy with his work and was promoted to higher rank. Few years ago, I only knew that he was ACP  and saw him after a long time, in a prominent role in a Salman Khan film ‘Garv’ in 2004, where he played a Police officer from  Salman Khan’s close associates in the film.  Recently, I met him after a very  long time. He had just retired from his job, as ACP. Sagar looked fit and cheerful. When I asked him, what were his future plans, he said, “Now, I am going to devote my full time for acting. Talks are going on with some film makers.”

“Recently, did two Hindi films. Hope these new film makers of today, give me a chance, to prove my ability. I am also keen on doing Marathi films,” he concluded.