Veteran actor who straddled effortlessly between cinema and theatre

As veteran actor Vikram Gokhale passed away on Saturday, one can only remember the stalwart with warmth and great degree of appreciation, for here stood an actor whose commanding presence exuded awe. Be it the stern patriarch in “Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam”, an upright police officer in “Agneepath” or an egoistic father in television series “Jeevan Saathi”, he never struck a false note.

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Born to Marathi theatre and film actor Chandrakant Gokhale, his was a family of actors, which included his great grandmother Durgabai Kamat, who was the first female actor of the Indian screen. Gokhale straddled both stage and cinema with as much ease as did his father, a thespian of no mean mettle. He too was a man of substance, which showed not only on screen and his innumerable stage performances like in “Barrister”, but also off screen. He did not shy away from speaking his mind even on contentious issues like pseudo secularism, rise of India’s might after 2014 and Kangana Ranaut’s remarks on real freedom and award ‘wapsi’.

Though he won the National Award for Best Actor for Marathi film “Anumati” and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, he did not believe awards were a barometer of ability. With a filmography that boasts of a little less than 100 films and over 20 TV shows, he leaves behind enough work for his admirers to catch up with.