An entire generation has grown up seeing him play 'Gopi', the fun-loving companion of Detective Sam in 'Tehekikat', a tele-serial that ran successfully on DD in mid-1990s. Today, Saurabh Shukla dons many caps, being one of the well-known faces in the Indian film industry.

As an actor, he has had some critically acclaimed performances to his credit, including 'Kallu Mama', the adorable gangster of Satya.

He has been in the director's seat in films like 'Mudda' and 'Chehra' and has written stories, scripts and screenplays of another dozen films, if not more. In his latest avatar, he is seen tickling a funny bone in 'Lo Kar Lo Baat', a comedy show on Sab TV.

In all of these roles he has done his bit fairly well. Yet, it is acting that is closest to his heart, the Delhi-based actor told, who was in the capital.

"The highest point of my creativity was Kallu Mama, a role that Ram Gopal Verma offered me on the condition that I would co-write Satya's script along with Anurag Kashyap," he recalls.

"I have never liked writing, which I think is a very tedious job. But I liked the character of Kallu so much, that out of greed I agreed to writing the script," he adds chuckling.

Today Shukla may be among the class of actors who have earned a formidable reputation for themselves solely on the basis of talent, but his journey to fame was not without its share of hitches.

"When I first went to Bombay to try my luck in films and television, I had three problems staring me in the face. Firstly, there was the 'middle-class complex' that I had battled all my life. Then there was the fact that I was essentially a theatre actor, not sure of how the film fraternity responded to theatre folks. And thirdly, I was fat and bald," he recounts.

"Even as I was heading for Mumbai, I felt sure I'd be slotted in certain type of roles. In theatre I've acted in some of the best plays including those of Arther Miller, John Ausbern and Girish Karnad. But I had never thought I'd be successful in films," says the unassuming actor.

Tehekikat was among his first significant breaks. In 1994 came Shekhar Gupta's "Bandit queen" where he played Kailash and in the same year he played 'Kallu Mama' in Satya, after which there was no looking back.

Shukla is best known for his flair for comedy and his take on this genre is greatly inspired from Hollywood greats like Woody Allen. "It is a situation that is comic, not one person's buffoonery. I have never tried to make my characters comic because it is situations that lend themselves to comedy," he says.

This two-time director is about to begin work on his next directorial venture this December, but prefers to keep other details under wraps for the moment. He strongly feels that a film's success depends largely on its marketing and the audience cannot be blamed for its failure.

A true believer in team work, he say "Great films are not made, they just happen. But that does not mean one allows buffonery on the sets." He adds, "At least a hundred people work on a film together. It is upto everybody's job to make the film a good one, not the actors, writer and director alone."

About Satya, a film on the life of underworld operatives, Shukla feels what set the film apart was the fact that the quality of life translated very well in the film.

"Films on the underworld that are being dished out of Bollywood nowadays do not involve mentally with the subject. So while most of these films become titillating fantasies they are perceptibly distinct from reality," he says.

The actor reveals that he returns to theatre whenever "power games" of the tinsel town tire him, but eventually returns to films. "Theatre in India has not been able to make inroads because committment towards it is still lacking."

Unlike in Broadway, New York's theatre district, which is a big commercial activity, theatre in India is still is viewed only as "a reformist medium", he rues.

"Theatre is not meant to deliver social messages alone," he says. Whatever art form one deals with is immaterial as long as one's attitude is right. "Mixing up art and social good unneccessarily should be avoided."

Similarly, he adds, cinema is not just the art of life and should speak truthfully about the realities of life.

Shukla says he finds it heartening that commercial cinema now has a tinge of experiment. Giving the example of Karan Johar's latest multi-starer flick 'Kal Ho Na Ho', Shukla says today popular film makers and actors are opening up to trying out now things.