As the world celebrates World Theatre Day today on March 27, four accomplished Bollywood actors - Richa Chadha, Pankaj Tripathi, Gulshan Devaiah and Vijay Varma - who have been trailblazers in their own space in the film business share their first ever professional theatre experiences and memories associated with it. Read on:
Richa Chadha
I remember my first play was when I was in the 11th grade. I was cast in a professional play with some actors from NSD repertory. Although it was not my first experience on stage but I guess it was the first professional one. The play was titled Aur Kitne Tukde and it was Hindi play, directed by Dr Kirti Jain. I was cast as an extra which worked well for me because I got to observe amazing actors from the National drama School at close quarters and learn from them. Also I had braces and it was a period play, so the less attention I do to myself the better it would be.
Pankaj Tripathi
My first play was Leela Nandlal Ki by Bhishm Sahani and its director was Vijay Kumar a National School of Drama pass out. The story was about a scooter that gets lost and the protagonist goes to police station to make a complaint. I was playing both the characters of a cop and a thief. It was my first play and for the first time, I performed in front of Patna audiences who don't even know me. And to my pleasant surprise, they liked my performances in both the characters even though I was not great performer at that time nor I was trained in diction but I open heartedly performed on my impulse and the audience liked mine performance and even misjudged me as a NSD pass out since the director was from NSD. The next day, a review of the play was printed and it was also mentioned about me that I have a great potential and a possibility of being a good actor. That one line grabbed my attention that in one play, the critics and the newspaper figured out my potential and possibility as an actor which was quite huge for me raising high my interest and confidence into acting further. This was in the year 1996 and in fact, my encounter with the theatre came much before in my village Gopalganj during one of the festivals Chatt. That play use to be organized by local drama group and Raghav Saran Tiwari was my first director. Even in that play, the locals of my village liked my performance and appreciated a lot. Since then, the seed of acting was sown inside me and I felt that I have to learn acting. Five years after that play, I migrated to Patna and did Bhism Sahani's Leela Nandlal Ki play.
Gulshan Devaiah
I was 5 year old and my mother was already an actor on stage. She use to be a very fine actor and I use to travel with her wherever she performed. My first experience was a Malayalam play and I did a guest appearance. My mother and I had to just walk past look at this person, who was making a Rangoli on the floor and appreciate it. I had absolutely no clue what I was doing it but I was over the moon that I was on the stage and all these people are watching me. I have a clear memory of me wearing blue checked shirt and blue shorts with elastic and my mom wearing a chiffon saree. It was in the year 1982-83. The first time professionally I did a play, it was Kurukshetra Burning in Bangalore and after it, I felt I was good as an actor. It was a series of monologues. It was fictitious retelling of what happened after the Mahabharata war and I played Duryodhan. Each of the monologue was about 15 mins, so I performed that monologue. My father had come to see the play, he was in the audience. After I did that, I had such a great feeling that everybody responded so well to my performance and I think I gave a lot to that performance. That's when I decided that I can come to Mumbai and pursue my dreams. It was never my dream to be a theatre actor, I learnt so much from theatre and I am very grateful to the medium.
Vijay Varma
I was rejected at FTII and came back to Hyderabad dejected and broken. I enrolled myself in a theater group (Sutradhar) and did a 4 month workshop at the end of which was a play. I went late for rehearsal one day and I was thrown out of that play after working so hard. I did backstage. Then after showing discipline and commitment, I got a part in the next play - Kisi Aur Ka Sapna. My first play as an actor in stage was probably the most exhilarating moment of my life when I went up first time on a dark stage with just a spotlight. But I had to work a lot in the dark first to be in that spotlight. Theatre trains you in dealing with darkness and finding yourself. I am eternally thankful to the stage and my teacher.
