New Delhi: He has donned the image of the serious young man to perfection and now actor Atul Kulkarni is out to prove that he is equally at ease with comic roles. In the high-grosser Marathi film Valu, Kulkarni plays the role of a forest officer. "This is my first film in a comic role," he said during the ongoing Osian's film festival here.

Winner of two National Awards (Best Supporting Actor for roles in Chandni Bar and Hey Ram, Kulkarni plays the role of Gobar in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's next venture Delhi6. Without divulging much about the film, he said it also stars Waheeda Rehman, Prem Chopra, Rishi Kapoor, Abhishek Bachchan, Sonam and Om Puri.

"But it is not that I dislike such roles. All my previous roles were of serious characters. I love comic roles," he said. Valu deals with the age-old tradition in Maharashtra villages where a bull is let loose. In this case, the bull spreads terror and destroys crops. Forest officer Kulkarni is then called to counter the menace. Kulkarni said the film has done very good business in the state and earned laurels at the Rotterdam Film Festival at Berlin. 

Other works in the pipeline include Sagar Bellary's (of Bheja Fry fame) Kacha Limbu , Faruque Kabir s directorial debut Allah Ke Bande and N Chandra s Yeh Mera India . He is also working in an English movie by Anjan Datta called Chaurasta .