Kulkarni began his career as a Cluster Programming Head for
Radio Mirchi. in 2008
Valu, released in 2008, was a light, enjoyable movie portraying various stereotypical characters found in an Indian village through the simple story of a wild bull which needs to be captured. Inspired by his observations, and many of the characters he writes reflect authentic village people. In 2009's
Gabhricha Paus, he portrayed the tragic story of an Indian farmer from a small village in
Vidarbha, who is suffering because of sparse rain, evil money lenders and the negligence of the Indian government towards farmers. His second release in 2009,
Vihir, was an abstract movie which told the story of an adolescent boy who sets out to understand the meaning of life and death after his cousin and close friend dies. Vihir was screened at
Berlin International Film Festival in 2010 and garnered praise and critical appreciation from all over the world. His following movie
Deool, released in 2011, which depicted how politicians manipulate the beliefs of innocent masses in the name of God. The film earned him two
National Film Awards, for best actor and for best screenplay. His next writing and acting venture in Marathi cinema, the movie
Masala released in 2012 quickly became a family favourite, unveiling new aspects of his talents. In 2013, he made his acting debut in Bollywood with film-maker
Anurag Kashyap's thriller
Ugly, in which his performance as the inadvertently funny cop brought him the attention and praise of the industry as well as the masses. Currently, work on his upcoming films is underway. His next is a Marathi movie titled
Highway, starring
Huma Qureshi and
Tisca Chopra, which he has written, acted in, and co-produced. He is also working on a comedy film, with which he will mark his directorial debut, apart from acting in it. He has acted as the National coach for Geeta Phogat in the acclaimed movie
Dangal (film). The character had shades of grey and is shown to have issues with on-screen Mahavir Phogat. This was his biggest role in Bollywood, with Dangal earning over $300 million to become the 5th highest grossing non-English film of all time. He was also seen in
Kaabil as Inspector Nalawade. Later in 2017, Kulkarni portrayed local gangster Appa in
Faster Fene, based on the popular book series written by
Bhaskar Ramachandra Bhagwat. In 2018, Kulkarni portrayed politician Bipin Bhonsle in the Netflix original
Sacred Games, based on the 2006 thriller by
Vikram Chandra of the same name. With a star studded cast, including
Saif Ali Khan,
Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and
Radhika Apte, Sacred Games has been lauded by critics as one of the best web series to come out of India. ==Filmography==