Atul Kulkarni: Pandemic will enhance disparity, impact economy and education

Mumbai

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic will only enhance the existing inequality and disparity in Indian society, and also impact economy and education, feels actor Atul Kulkarni.

"Everything is uncertain today but one thing certain, especially in a developing country like India, is that the disparity and inequality in our society are going to grow. Not only economic disparity, it will also have an effect on the education," Kulkarni told IANS.

With educational institutions shut owing to lockdown, online education has become an alternative for students.

Commenting on the same, the actor said: "For online education, you need certain equipment at home. You need parents who can teach children at home. If you go to a village or even in Mumbai if you go to a slum, such a cultural capital is not with parents. As a result, you will see a huge inequality and disparity in education, which is going to come and bite us seven or eight years from now. The attempt of every government should be to reduce that inequality."

Asked how his life changed over the past few months of lockdown, the actor commented: "I have not really missed shooting or the sets. I have not really missed Mumbai because I have been staying in my farmhouse for the last four months. I have really enjoyed my stay at the farmhouse. My NGO works from there and work on that front is going on."

On the work front, the National Award-winning actor features in the recently-released Amazon Prime web series "Bandish Bandits".

Sharing his experience of working in the musical, the actor said: "Music is the ‘atma' of 'Bandish Bandits'. I am happy that I got this opportunity to try something I have never done before -- to act like a classical singer.

"Classical singing is extremely difficult, to sing the sargam isn't very easy especially when you have the breathless Shankar (Mahadevan) lending his voice to you!" he added.

Asked if he would like to go through a training to get a hold of classical singing, the actor joked: "I would perhaps need 49 births to sing classical!"