Know about Ashok Saraf: From a bank employee to one of the greatest actors in Bollywood
You must have seen the film Karan Arjun. Anyway, this film often appears on TV, and it is also a very wonderful film. Do you remember Thakur Durjan Singh’s Munshi in this film? Yes, the same scribe who keeps saying ‘Thakur to Giyo’ throughout the film. His name is Ashok Saraf, and he has been entertaining audiences with his comedy in the film industry for the last five decades.
Today the story of Ashok Saraf will be told, and you readers will learn how Ashok Saraf, who worked at the State Bank of India, became such a significant artist in the film industry.
Ashok Saraf Early Life
Ashok Saraf was born on June 4, 1947, in Chikhalwadi, South Mumbai. His father was involved in the import-export business. When Ashok grew up, his father told him to complete his studies and secure a good job quickly. However, his father did not know that his son was not born to work a regular job. Since childhood, Ashok wanted to become the king of the acting world.
However, Ashok did not want to break his father’s hopes and wishes. So, he started working at the State Bank of India. He remained stuck in his job for the next ten years. But he did not let his passion for acting die. Along with his job, he continued participating in plays.
Ashok Saraf First Play
The first play of his career was based on the book Yayati by the great Marathi writer Vishnu Sakharam Khandekar. He became a clown in that play. At that time, even Ashok Saraf himself would not have known that in the future, people would utilize him on their eyelids only for his comedy. Ashok Saraf did a tremendous job in plays. Apparently, within a few days, filmmakers also started approaching him.
There was a great director of Marathi cinema named Gajanan Jagirdar. He cast Ashok Saraf in a small role in one of his films. This role was so small that Ashok neither gained any popularity nor received any special money from it. But Ashok definitely got one benefit: Ashok Saraf definitely entered the silver screen. This film was released in 1971.
Ashok Saraf Dominated Marathi Cinema
After this, Ashok Saraf continued working in films for four years and kept waiting for success. Then he got his first success in the film named Pandu Havaldar, released in 1975. This film is an iconic Marathi film, and significant Marathi actors like Dada Kondke have also acted in it.
It was with this film that his career truly took off. He became such a big name in the Marathi film industry that no other name could be mentioned in front of him except one: Lakshya, i.e., Laxmikant Berde. During that period, both these artists took Marathi cinema forward on their own.
Ashok Saraf Pairing with Lakshya
His pairing with Laxmikant Berde was very good. Aashihi Banwa Banami, Gamat-Jamant, Dhoom-Dhadaka, Ekachati Ek are some of the superhit Marathi films in which the pair of these two actors made the audience laugh a lot and also showed that the audience could be made to laugh even without lewd and obscene gestures.
Hardly any cinema expert would be able to deny that between 1980 and 1990, Ashok Saraf and Laxmikant Berde single-handedly kept Marathi cinema alive.
Whereas during this period, the Marathi cinema industry was in very poor condition. But based on their talent, these two actors continued to rule Marathi cinema for these ten years. At that time, it was decided that if these two actors were in a film, then that film would be a superhit.
Ashok Saraf Life Partner
The pairing of Ashok Saraf and Marathi actress Ranjana was greatly liked by the audience. It can be said that just as the audience showered love on the pairing of Shah Rukh and Kajol in Hindi cinema, the audience of Marathi cinema showered love on the pairing of these two.
It is also considered a significant achievement that despite Ashok Saraf being a comedy artist, Ranjana and his pairing are considered one of the most romantic pairs of Marathi cinema. And not only with Ranjana, the audience also liked Ashok Saraf’s pairing with Nivedita Joshi. His heart was so engrossed in working with Nivedita that he fell in love with her.
Then in the year 1990, both of them got married. They got married in Shri Mangesh Temple in Goa. Actually, the roots of Ashok Saraf’s family are connected to this area of Goa where Shri Mangesh Temple is present. The couple also has a son named Aniket. Although his son did not become an actor like him, instead, he chose the career of a chef for himself.
Hindi Cinema Did Not Give That Respect
If we look at Ashok Saraf’s career in Hindi films, he did great work in this film industry too, but his talent in Hindi cinema never got the same priority that he received in Marathi cinema. In Hindi cinema, Ashok’s talent was confined to small comedy roles only. But still, Ashok Saraf proved that he is a very powerful actor at every opportunity he got in Hindi cinema.
This is the reason why there are many characters of Ashok Saraf in Hindi cinema which will always be memorable in the history of cinema. Who can forget Karan Arjun’s Munshi and his dialogue “Thakur To Gio”? Who would not have liked the character of Shah Rukh Khan’s friend in the film Yes Boss? Who can underestimate Singham’s character of a head constable, or who would not laugh at Govinda’s maternal uncle’s character in Joru Ke Ghulam?
How Ashok Saraf Became Jagat Mama
An interesting incident related to Ashok Saraf’s life is connected to his becoming Jagat Mama. Actually, everyone in the Marathi cine industry calls him uncle. And this process of him becoming Jagat Mama started in the last years of the 1970s. The shooting of one of his films was going on in Kolhapur. A cameraman named Prakash Shinde was also a part of this shooting unit.
Prakash Shinde often brought his younger daughter to the set of that film and would show his daughter to Ashok Saraf and say, “Look, that is your Ashok uncle.” This sequence continued daily for a few days, and then Prakash Shinde himself started jokingly calling Ashok Saraf as uncle. And after that, the entire crew of the film started calling Ashok Saraf as uncle. Then within a few months, Ashok Saraf became the uncle of the entire Marathi film industry.
Magic Works on the Small Screen Too
Ashok Saraf acting was very popular on the small screen as well. People loved Ashok Saraf’s comedy in the TV show Hum Paanch, which aired on Doordarshan in 1995. In this show, Ashok presented the turmoil in the life of Mr. Mathur, the father of five daughters, in a very comic manner. The serial Don’t Worry Ho Jayega on Sahara TV is also a great example of Ashok Saraf’s acting skills. This show was also very much liked, and this show was produced by his wife Nivedita Joshi Saraf.
For the last five decades, Ashok Saraf has been displaying his acting skills in front of his fans. However, in the year 2012, he became the victim of a major car accident near an area named Talegaon on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. However, luckily his life was saved in that accident. Then everyone had said that Ashok Saraf still had to entertain the audience a lot.
That’s why God saved Ashok Saraf in that terrible car accident. Otherwise, looking at the condition of the car, no one could believe that any person traveling in this car would have been able to survive.