Saurabh Shukla interview
The long-awaited COMEBACK
Actor-director Saurabh Shukla, who returned to theatre after 18 years with the play Two To Tango, Three To Jive, talks about his his surge into films
We have seen him play myriad roles on television and films, the latest one being that of Inspector Dutta in the Oscar-nominated film Barfi. After an “‘impressive stint of 18 years in filmography; actor Saurabh Shukla is back to doing what he loves the best -theatre. His recent play titled, Two to Tango, Three to Jive (T5J), is about a middle-aged man, who during his mid-life crisis, tries desperately to have flings with three women (played by Negar Khan, Mona Wasu and Preiti Mamgain). His women, with time, incorporate diverse viewpoints of life, which are not only strange, but also real.
Shukla, who began his career as a theatre artiste, joined the National School of Drama (NSD) Repertory in 1991. But acting was never on his mind. “I was inclined towards filmmaking. Acting was something that happened to me on the way. I used to direct plays and once, in one of my plays, I had to fill in for an actor who ditched us at the last moment. That was the first time I realised that I could act and since then there has been no looking back,” says the multi-talented artiste, who later moved to Mumbai after Shekhar Kapoor, smitten by one of his stage performances, signed him up for the role of Kailash for his movie Bandit Queen. Since then, life has been nothing less than a roller-coaster ride for the actor. “After shifting to Mumbai, I couldn’t take out time for theatre, as it did not pay well and I had to support myself in a new city. I had ample of opportunities coming my way, which were mostly movies and television seri als. Gradually, I started doing well,” says the actor. He adds, “After Satya, I was flooded with offers.
Acting and filmmaking took away all my time, and I could never find time for theatre, which I had been yearning for, for long,” says the virtuoso, adding that on meeting Ashwin Kidwani, he finally decided to satiate his craving for directing and acting in a play.
Shukla says, “Theatre in India still does not pay well. It isn’t self-sustaining, but people like Ashwin make it possible. When I met him for the first time, I realised we share the same views about theatre and that’s why I decided to work with him.”
T5J is an adaptation of American playwright Neil Simon’s Last Of The Red Hot Lovers. The story is about a middle-aged man facing mid-life crisis. We ask the actor if he has experienced any such thing in real life and he replies, “Yes I did! It’s that funny age when you look back and ask yourself if whatever you’ve done so far is truly worth it and then if you feel you haven’t, your urge is to do something drastically different. Most men start drinking or indulge in extra-marital relationships. I suppose women experience it too, but have a different way of expressing it,” he says.
Apart from this play, the artiste is also gearing up for his next movie Jolly LLB, where he plays an interesting role. “I also have Yash Raj Film’s Gunde in the pipeline and a couple of other movies. But I’ll definitely be doing a lot of plays now,” he concludes.