Zakir, who had begun his career with television, is once again doing two historical characters for television.
Normally film stars refrain from television unless it is some talk show, but Zakir Hussein has no such issues. For him any medium, as long as it offers scope for good acting, is good. Naturally when he got a good offer from television, he took it on. He is playing the central character of Dara Shikoh, the eldest son of Shahajahan, who was a saint by nature.
Everybody knows Aurangzeb as Shahajahan's son and for his power & fanatics, but nobody is aware of his elder brother Dara Shikoh. So, through this serial, makers have tried to educate every generation young or old, big or small; about the facts of our history. Dara Shikoh would have made a better ruler and may be then India wouldn't have suffered the slavery of British.
'Upanishad Ganga' is produced by a Calcutta based Chinmaya institute and directed by Dr. Chandra Prakash Dewivedi. It is based on stories from the Vedas, Purans, mythological and historical books. This serial consists of the life history of some great personalities.
Zakir calls this serial as his learning experience. Collection of many short stories, Upnishad Ganga is exploring history and mythology both. Each story is divided into four to five episodes. Zakir is enacting the character of Dara Shikoh and in another story he is playing the character of Valmiki who had transformed into a great Rishi from being a Dacoit. As for the memorable incident, for Zakir learning about history and his country is more valuable.
Zakir also has many films releases lined up like Johnny Gaddaar, Shabari, Fauj Mein Mauj, Firoj Nadiadwala's Full N Final and Ramu's Darling & Sholay. He had moved away from small screen because of his over commitment towards films. Zakir accepted this serial also because he has known director Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi very well.
When Zakir had begun his acting career in 1997, his first interaction was with Dr Dwivedi only. Zakir's first role was as Krishna's elder brother Balram in 'Ek Aur Mahabharat'. After that he did good roles in serials like Gatha, Kartavya, Adhikaar, Kitty Party and Kora Kagaz and subsequently moved towards silver screen.
Zakir Hussein is an actor first and then a star. This dedicated actor has done acting with sincerity and goes too deep into each character that he plays. He got rave reviews for portrayal of his mean character Rashid in Sarkar. In Risk Zakir portrayed the character of Naidu while in Black Friday he moved into the groove of bomb squad head Nand Kumar Chowghale with ease and expertise.
