Sharad Kelkar essayed the role of Nahar Singh in television daily soap, Saat Phere - Saloni ka Safar. The series ran for almost 5 years with Kelkar's image as the positive leading hero being cemented in the minds of the audience. Thus when the actor decided to switch things up for himself as an actor, fans were not very receptive to the decision.

Sharad Kelkar recalls being abused by fans for choosing to play a negative role

In an exclusive chat with Bollywood Bubble, Sharad Kelkar opened up about his first anti-hero role - that of Thakur Digvijay Singh Bhadoria in daily soap Bairi Piya. Though the actor himself was pumped up for a switch, his fans were not as ready. Kelkar revealed how when the first promos of the serial were aired on television, his fans got abusive about his choice of role.

The chat originally having taken place in Hindi, a rough translation of the actor's response reads, 'I did a show with Ektaa (Kapoor)- Bairi Piya, that saw me as the anti-hero. People were abusive towards me when they saw the promos of the show. They wanted to know the reason behind the switch. But when they watched the show, their opinions changed.'

Sharad Kelkar has actively avoided being typecast

Though Saat Phere was a massive success, Sharad was always sure about not wanting to grapple with stagnancy by playing similar characters over and over again. Being typecast however, is something that an actor actively needs to keep countering, as per Kelkar's experience. 

A rough translation of the actor's response reads, 'After doing Saat Phere for three years, I realized I was not growing as an actor anymore. I reached a stagnant point. As soon as the show ended, I was approached with at least a dozen similar roles. I don’t know why people wanted to typecast me.' It was only after Bairi Piya that Kelkar started getting offers for negative roles, thus proving that his risk had paid off.