Satish Rajwade

Career

Rajwade started his career with acting in various Hindi and Marathi films along with theatre. He then moved to television as a director and writer. He has also worked as an assistant to director Govind Nihalani. Satish Rajwade found his passion for this make-believe world when his mother sent him to an acting workshop for kids during his summer holidays. Satish Rajwade says "To be very frank, I did not act in any play during my school years. But I was a very mischievous kid. Therefore, in order to get at least 2 hours of respite, my mother packed me off to a kid's acting workshop and it was there that I found my true calling." With the vision of making an entry into theatre and acting, Satish Rajwade joined the Mithibai College in Vile Parle – (West) which is a preferred college for students wanting to make their mark in the glamour world. During his college years, he acted in 75 one-act plays for his college in Marathi, Hindi, English as well as Gujarati for which he won many awards including the INT Best Actor in a Comic Role award for a Marathi one-act play "Aambaa". The Best Comic Actor award fetched Satish Rajwade a role in his first professional play "Tur Tur" by Kedar Shinde in which he portrayed a role of a Gujarati man. But his first big break came when he was spotted by Mahesh Manjrekar and Mohan Wagh and was offered the role of the deaf man in the famous play "All The Best". Satish Rajwade did 890 shows of this play both in Marathi as well as English versions. A casting director of the Bollywood stalwart Govind Nihalani spotted Satish Rajwade during one of his performances for All The Best. He offered Satish Rajwade his first role in a Hindi film. Satish Rajwade then went on to play small roles in various Hindi Films like Sanshodhan, Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa, Nidaan, Vaastav, Josh etc. But soon he realized that real cinema is made behind the camera and this made him take up editing; he actually wanted to become a cameraman but found editing more challenging. Satish Rajwade worked in the editing studios of B.R.Chopra without any salary for almost a year and he credits his family for supporting him and showing confidence in him through such tough periods. As he progressed, Satish Rajwade realized that he wanted to tell stories in his own way; he wanted to become a director. Along with his friend Naveen Upadhyay, he directed his first pilot episode starring Mohan Joshi and Reema Lagoo. Blaze Music Company liked their work and offered him to direct a music video "Na Jaane Kyun" starring model Sameer Dharmadhikari which became an instant hit on the music charts. Pleased with the success of the music video, Blaze Music Company CEOs offered to let Satish Rajwade direct a small-budget Hindi film which they were planning to produce. But he suggested that instead of making a low-key Hindi film, they'd rather make a full-fledged Marathi film. And thus started the journey of Mrugjal. Satish Rajwade's elder brother, Shirish Rajwade, had narrated him Mrugjal's story when he was in college. And Satish Rajwade was so fascinated with that story that he decided that his first film would be based on it. The producers too liked the story gave it their green signal. However "Mrugjal" proved to be more difficult to make that was imagined. The film became a litmus test of Satish Rajwade's tenacity. At the eleventh hour, he found his prospective screen play writers shying away because he was a debutant. Satish Rajwade says "In the heat of the moment, I wrote the story myself. If this was not enough, my cameraman did a vanishing act just a day prior to the beginning of the shoot of the movie – I had to pull my personal contacts to rope in Suhas Gujarathi at the last minute". Even as he took things in his stride with bated breath, "Mrugjal" went on to bag 23 awards which included the coveted V.Shantaram award for best director as well many other awards for story, screenplay and cinematography – all products of accidental afterthought. This was the first grand proof of Rajwade's genius. "Mrugjal" won critical acclaim for Satish Rajwade but the offers that followed were not heartening. They came either from fly-by-night operators trying to make hay or from one-time directors looking to utilize government grants, employing shoe-string budgets only to fill their pockets. Satish Rajwade chose to stay away, at the cost of being without work for a substantial time. "It was my family that saw me through these difficult times. I owe my success to them", he says. But Zee Marathi recognised his talent and offered him his first serial "Duniyadari" which was followed by "Kinara", "Reshim Gaathi". He co-directed "Oon Pawus" for which he also won the Ma. Ta. Sanmaan Best Director award. Then "Asambhav" happened. Satish Rajwade also directed the first 30 episodes of "Weg" on Saam Marathi channel. After Asambhav, he directed strong starcast of "Agnihotra" on Star Pravah channel. After that came 'Guntata hriday he' & ' Eka lagnachi Dusri Goshta' on Zee Marathi. He has worked in many of his project with actress Mukta Barve.

His latest film Badam Rani Gulam Chor is based on popular Marathi play Makdachya Haati Champagne (literally: Champagne in the hands of a monkey) and features Upendra Limaye, Mukta Barve, Pushkar Shotri and Anand Ingale in lead roles. His last release is "Preamachi Goshta" starring perfectionist Atul Kulkarni with beautiful Sagarika Gatage.The film released on 1 February 2013 all over Maharashtra & audience loved its simplicity and content.