His passion for theatre failed to fade away

PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 25

Before the advent of cable TV, when Doordarshan was the only entertainment channel, there were few artistes who became memorable with their stellar performances in Punjabi plays telecast on DD Jalandhar or Jalandhar Doordarshan.

Vijay Sharma is one of them. Some of his plays, such as ‘Mr Galad’, ‘Pehredar’, ‘Adjustment’, ‘Juttian Da Jora’, ‘Apna Apna Hissa’ etc still find space on the channel. He has also performed plays in Pakistan, UK and various other parts of the country.

Sharma retired as general manager (sales) from a soft drink company here. He is still active in theatre and has also played some important roles in Punjabi movies.

Sharma started theatre in 1977 and since then, he has not looked back. Initially, he took it as his hobby, but later it became a passion. “I gave 35 years to the soft drink industry but I continued with my passion also. My job never came in way of my passion,” he said with pride.

Recently, he was seen in Punjabi movie Ikko Mikke in which Satinder Sartaj and Aditi Sharma played the lead. Unfortunately, two days after the release, the government imposed lockdown restrictions.

The Covid induced lockdown hit everybody hard and artistes were no different. In fact, the artist community was completely and conveniently ignored by the government. Those who were fully dependent on theatre were the worst hit during the pandemic, Sharma pointed out.

“As Virsa Vihar, Punjab Naatshala and Thakur Singh Art Gallary remained closed during the lockdown, I worked on several scripts of short films being made under the banner of GSK productions. I used to discuss the scripts with my team and other artistes through video conferences. After the relaxation in the Covid restrictions, we have started rehearsals for the same,” he said.

“We have made some short movies, such as ‘Fathers’ Day’, ‘The Seeds’, ‘Shak’ etc which are slated for release soon while more such projects are in the pipeline,” Sharma maintained.

Besides being a part of Punjabi movie Ikko Mikke, he also worked in ‘Ashke’, ‘Tara Mira’ and ‘Eh Janam Tumhare Lekhe’, based on the life of Bhagat Puran Singh. Bollywood actor Pawan Malhotra had played the role of Bhagat Puran Singh while he had played the role of his father in the movie. “I have a couple of Punjabi movies in my hand, but shooting is yet to start due to the pandemic,” Sharma added.