00:00So, hello sir, welcome to INS and first of all, congratulations on your theatre play in our village.
00:05Thank you very much.
00:07You are coming back to the theatre after a long time.
00:11You are back to the theatre after doing so much work in films.
00:15What is your mind space? What is going on?
00:17See, I believe that theatre is a training ground.
00:21Films are a form of performance.
00:24You realize that you are performing in Bareilly and at the same time you are performing in Berlin.
00:31But in theatre, if you are performing in Mumbai,
00:35you are not able to see the whole of Mumbai.
00:37You are only able to see the people who are sitting in the audience.
00:40But if you look at it, there is no importance of such training,
00:45which does not give you the opportunity to perform.
00:47And people do not appreciate such performances,
00:49which do not have extensive training.
00:52So, I believe that theatre is a training institute,
00:55which prepares you.
00:57And it tries to bring a trained artist or a trained warrior to the world.
01:07So, I believe that training is very important for any performance.
01:14And since I am from the National School of Drama,
01:17So, if you look at our original DNA, it is the DNA of Rang Manch.
01:22And you are playing the role of Lankesh.
01:24I was listening to your interview earlier.
01:26Lankesh is a character who has a lot of depth.
01:29Like you said, he is a scholar.
01:31He has a lot of understanding of the universe.
01:33He is a great scholar.
01:36It is such a layered character when you get to play such an actor.
01:41It is a treat for any of them.
01:43For you, when you were understanding this character,
01:46you were doing more additions to it.
01:48You have read a lot of literature.
01:50You have seen a lot of things.
01:51You have written a book.
01:53What are the things that you have added to it to make it better?
01:58See, in our Ramayana,
02:00because Ramayana is such a book,
02:02or Ramcharitmanas is such a book,
02:04which has been read and heard by millions of people.
02:08But even after that,
02:11there are a lot of incidents and chapters
02:14about which there has been less discussion.
02:16So we have tried to add those chapters as well.
02:19And I feel that
02:21in the story that you have heard,
02:24when you and I sum up the incidents that we have heard less of,
02:28then its presentation and the content that we get from it,
02:31the return is amazing.
02:34That is what happened.
02:35There are a lot of incidents here,
02:37which you will get to see.
02:39Whether it is the worship of Devadhi Dev Mahadev,
02:43with which he proved Mahadev.
02:45Or when he...
02:47In this, you will get to see a perspective
02:49that you and I don't know
02:51that Shurpanakha's husband was Vidyutjiva,
02:54whose murder was committed by Ravana.
02:56So we only saw Shurpanakha's character
02:58that she goes to Paramatma Ram,
03:00and she has her own proposal,
03:03and under that proposal, we only saw that.
03:06But what is the motivation behind that?
03:08We didn't see Shurpanakha's motivation.
03:10We don't know about the Shiva Linga of Mahadev
03:13on Rameshwaram,
03:15or very few people know about it.
03:17So to establish it,
03:18Ravana was called by Paramatma Shri Ram.
03:20Whereas the two were going to destroy each other's enemies.
03:25They were going to kill each other.
03:27But when you say that
03:29whenever someone comes in contact with a respectable man,
03:32then he becomes respectable.
03:34But when you call your beloved Ram,
03:37he becomes arrogant.
03:39So why don't you call Ram with any emotion?
03:42The nature of Ram is that
03:44he destroys you.
03:46So there are many such incidents
03:48that you will get to see in this.
03:51There is a set of responsibilities.
03:53It is their duty.
03:54They do their work.
03:56But this happens in two ways
03:58because the audience also has a responsibility.
04:00It is said that there are many versions of the Ramayana.
04:03There is something in India,
04:04there is something in Indonesia,
04:05and there is something in Malaysia.
04:07How important is it for the audience
04:09to include all these stories in their minds?
04:13Or should they listen to it carefully
04:16and learn from it?
04:18I feel that when a viewer comes to a hall,
04:21whether it is a theatre hall or a cinema hall,
04:24initially they have told their presence
04:27that they are very open-minded.
04:29We have come to enjoy this story.
04:31So to say that they are not open-minded
04:36is not ethical.
04:38Their presence tells us
04:40that they have come to enjoy
04:42and to see the wider perspective of the story.
04:46Or to say that they have come
04:48with the feeling of acceptance.
04:50Now it depends on the viewers
04:52and the actors of that situation
04:54who are together with the Amritayog.
04:57If there is a very involved audience,
05:00as soon as there is an audience,
05:01they have come to get involved.
05:03But if they are not involved,
05:05then somewhere we should think as actors
05:08that we will have to make more efforts
05:12so that we can connect their Manas Patal
05:15with our Manas Patal.
05:17Or we can connect with their Manas Patal.
05:21And it is said that theatre is an actor's medium
05:24because everything is in the hands of actors.
05:27In comparison to films,
05:29where the director calls the shot,
05:31a lot of things change in the edit.
05:33In theatre, what an actor does
05:35is just for the sake of that show.
05:37In the next show,
05:38they can change it according to them.
05:40In such a situation,
05:42as you said,
05:43your DNA is of theatre.
05:45When you came back to this world
05:47and played this character,
05:49what were the things
05:50which left you pleasantly surprised
05:52about your own craft
05:53or which made you feel proud?
05:55The biggest feature of theatre
05:57is that it keeps you alert,
05:59aware and active.
06:02So, for any show like Truth of the Moment,
06:04we need to be alert, active and aware.
06:07So, it helps us to increase
06:09these three things within us.
06:11And when these three things increase,
06:13then even in our personal life,
06:15you and I become more enlightened
06:17and use our capabilities more than before.
06:21So, I feel that this thing
06:23is increased in theatre.
06:25Why?
06:26Because in that moment,
06:28when you and I take birth,
06:30we are completely alone.
06:32Similarly, when you go on the stage,
06:34if you look at Sarvatha,
06:36the dialogue written by you
06:40or the dialogue spoken by you
06:42is not just about you.
06:44It is live.
06:46So, the mistake of the other person
06:48or the cleanliness of the other person
06:50or the art of the other person
06:52is that you need to be able
06:54to respond to them.
06:56You need to be able to receive
06:58and give your return accordingly.
07:00So, I feel that this thing is magical.
07:02When these faculties of your brain
07:04open up, then you become more
07:06elevated in your personal life than before.
07:08The actors who come from the background
07:10of the theatre,
07:11they have a great control over their voice.
07:13Voice modulation,
07:14what pause to take,
07:15how much pressure to put on the word.
07:17In today's era,
07:19in today's films,
07:21do you feel that the new generation
07:23of actors concentrate less on their voice?
07:25I don't take it this way.
07:27I take it as if I am from the theatre,
07:29from the NSG.
07:31So, I started working after learning.
07:33And there are some people
07:35who learn while working.
07:37The point is,
07:39the importance of learning.
07:41That we are working after learning
07:43and there are some people
07:45who learn while working.
07:47So, the quality of learning,
07:49if it is magical,
07:51then believe me,
07:53your performance will have
07:55an impact on the audience.
07:57Because the character is of the actor
07:59until the audience has seen it.
08:01But when the audience has seen it,
08:03then the character,
08:05neither of the writer,
08:07nor of the actor,
08:09nor of the director,
08:11becomes of the audience.
08:13So, I feel,
08:15what you are saying about voice modulation,
08:17the actor tries his best.
08:19Only some people's abilities
08:21and efforts
08:23affect you.
08:25And some people's efforts and abilities
08:27don't affect you.
08:29So, you can say that
08:31today's people are not paying attention.
08:33Even though they are paying attention,
08:35it didn't affect you as an audience.
08:37So, we feel that
08:39they didn't work with full honesty.
08:41It doesn't happen like that.
08:43They work with honesty.
08:45It doesn't affect you.
08:47And when Brecht used to do his plays,
08:49he used to read his audience as well.
08:51Like you mentioned,
08:53there is an active give and take
08:55between the audience.
08:57If they felt that the emotion
08:59was not coming equally,
09:01then he used to trigger that emotion
09:03by making his theatre group sit
09:05so that the 300-350 people
09:07can go through the same emotion.
09:09So, if you notice,
09:11if the audience's door is slipping,
09:13as soon as you step on the stage,
09:15you understand
09:17the temperature, temperament
09:19of the audience.
09:21According to that,
09:23you try to fine-tune yourself
09:25without destroying
09:27or without
09:29making any kind of noise
09:31that you spoil your story,
09:33the story, the presentation.
09:35So, without spoiling,
09:37you fine-tune.
09:39And you understand that.
09:41It's not a matter of expression.
09:43It's a matter of experience.
09:45You understand that
09:47while doing it.
09:49Because it keeps going on.
09:51That's the specialty of theatre.
09:53Whether it's Brecht's theatre
09:55or Kalidas's,
09:57or Bharat Muni's
09:59plays,
10:01or whatever it is,
10:03it's a continuous process
10:05that you have to
10:07fine-tune yourself.
10:09For example, you and I
10:11are talking on the frequency.
10:13There might be news on the radio.
10:15There might be movie songs.
10:17There might be commentary.
10:19But what are we doing now?
10:21We are talking.
10:23So, it's a matter of fine-tuning.
10:25Fine-tuning.
10:27So, if our frequency matches
10:29that of the audience,
10:31then that thing starts spreading.
10:33It's the same with the audience.
10:35You have to match the frequency.
10:37And for my final question,
10:39your two characters
10:41have left a deep mark
10:43on Indian cinema.
10:45One is the character of struggle
10:47and the other is the character of the enemy.
10:49If you could share
10:51your fondest memories
10:53of those two characters.
10:55It's a long story
10:57because there are two films.
10:59We will definitely talk
11:01about the process
11:03of struggle and the enemy.
11:05On that note, thank you so much, sir.
11:07It was a pleasure and an honor
11:09having this conversation.
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