"I have never played a negative character as interesting as the one I have essayed in KARAM. It is probably the recreation of one of the most stylized villains on the Indian screen," says ad-man and theatre-personality, Bharat Dabholkar, who is poised to give all the villains in the industry a run for their money, with his new avatar.

In the film, Dabholkar plays the role of a character called 'Captain', who poses a threat to the whole world with his menacing deeds.

"He is hardly the loud villain that you see in most Hindi films. He is a cold-blooded and tough man, who does not believe in compromises. On the other hand, he is a very suave and smooth operator, who goes about his task of executing people very professionally. The interesting aspect however is the very stylized mannerisms of the character that have been worked out in great detail," says Dabholkar.

In fact, so impactful is his appearance in the film that people who saw the promos called him up to compliment him on his promising screen presence.

The role happened to Dabholkar when cinematographer-turned-director Sanjay F Gupta narrated the character one fine day and asked him whether it would interest him.

"I was too impressed with the character to even give it a thought. Besides, I had seen Sanjay Gupta's path-breaking work in music videos and cinematography," he recalls.

The decision paid off not only in terms of the character but also the experience of shooting with a producer like Harry Baweja.

"Harry, his wife Pammi and their son, Harman, are great hosts, who go out of their way to make everyone comfortable on the sets. Besides they are a dedicated lot of people, who value talent and the creative exercise that goes behind film-making," he articulates. In addition, it was the experience of working with buddy John Abraham that he enjoyed most. "John is also from the ad world and I have known him for a long time now. He's one unassuming guy who has never thrown around his weight or acted difficult," he says.

This is Dabholkar's third Hindi film, after PAGALPAN and the brief appearance he made in Ram Gopal Varma's COMPANY, in the role of a minister. In the intervening period, he also did BABA, down south with Rajnikanth, in which he played the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu.

"The roles I have done so far have never been planned. They have just been an extension of the friendly relations I have shared with the producers or directors of those films. That's how I keep doing them occasionally. In the case of PAGALPAN, Joy was a great friend who coaxed me into doing it, while the producer R. Mohan was a client of my ad agency. As for Ram Gopal Varma, he had approached me earlier too when I was preoccupied with my theatre, while I decided to do the film down south to simply meet Rajnikant, who has fascinated me over the years," he smiles, adding that he always prefers to do something that is off the beaten track. One such experiment was with a hilarious English film GOD ONLY KNOWS that he had last produced and directed, which was a spoof on the country's political scenario and its hapless state of affairs. "I quite enjoyed doing the film," he recalls.

However between theatre and films, it is theatre, which always takes the precedence.

"That's because theatre is creatively inspiring and always prods you to go one step further with your creative imagination," he says. It has been 18 rewarding years now on the theatre scene, during which he has produced, written and directed some of the best known plays one of them being BOTTOMS UP, the longest running play.

Does that mean KARAM be just a passing phase in his career? "No way. From the look of it, I am hoping to experiment with diverse shades of villainy in the future. But it all depends on how I am able to strike the right balance between advertising, theatre and films," he says.