The 51-year-old actor played a judge named Justice Tripathi in Subhash Kapoor's 'Jolly LLB' for which he bagged the best supporting actor honour at the 61st National Film Awards.
"As an actor I have always been respected in the film industry. But post my National award win, directors are taking me more seriously and offering me challenging and prominent characters in films," Shukla told PTI. "The National award is the only award that is held in very high esteem and is given to people who have done really good work.
After receiving the honour I realised that I have been on the right path all along," he said. Shukla began his career with theatre in 1986. The NSD graduate made his film debut with Shekhar Kapur's much acclaimed 'Bandit Queen'.
He has starred in several films like 'Satya', 'Baadshah', 'Hey Ram', 'Barfi' among others. Shukla also did the role of Vijay Anand's sidekick Gopi in the 1994 Doordarshan crime drama 'Tehkikaat'.
This year the actor will be seen in Salman Khan starrer 'Kick' and 'PK' which has Aamir Khan and Anushka Sharma in lead roles. Shukla will soon begin shooting 'Jagga Jasoos' in which he will reunite with his 'Barfi' director Anurag Basu. The film stars Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif in lead roles. The actor has also signed director Nila Madhav Panda's 'Kaun Hai Kitne Paani Mein' and Rahul Kazmi's 'Identity Card'.
