Sharad Kelkar Reveals How He Landed Baahubali, Recalls Being Unsure About SS Rajamouli's Approval

Sharad Kelkar's voice has been a perfect fit to fit Prabhas' on-screen presence. The actor has been a consistent choice for dubbing the actor's characters, for some time now. Kelkar has also lent his voice to the animated series Baahubali: Crown of Blood. The actor recently reminisced about how he was scouted for, and ended up dubbing for Prabhas in the Baahubali franchise.

How did Sharad Kelkar land Baahubali?

In a recent interaction with PTI, Sharad Kelkar revealed how it was his work on action comedy Sardaar Gabbar Singh, led by Pawan Kalyan, which got him noticed as a potential choice for Baahubali. An unnamed individual directly suggested his name to SS Rajamouli, whose only query at the time was how fluent Kelkar was in Hindi - not a problem for the actor, considering he was from Gwalior.

He said, "I was not sure whether he would approve it or not, it came as a pleasant surprise. Somebody suggested that in Pawan Kalyan's film there's a villain who has a good voice, 'Please test him'. So, he asked, 'Does he speak Hindi?' and they said, 'He is from Gwalior and he is good at Hindi'."

Sharad Kelkar was nervous about SS Rajamouli approving of him

Sharad Kelkar was aware of SS Rajamouli's prowess, having seen a few of his masterpieces, but was not entirely abreast with the filmmaker's legacy. He said, "I had no idea about Baahubali but I had seen Magadheera and Makkhi." 
Regardless, Kelkar went ahead with his voice test proceeding to meet Rajamouli at the studio. He was informed the very next day, of having landed the gig.

He said, "As an actor, I wanted to meet the creator of this masterpiece. So, I gave my voice test, took the tape and met him at the studio. Next day, he said, 'You're doing the dubbing for Baahubali."