\\gra-Z\D\SOCIETY\SOCIETY OCT 2013\Drama - ARUNDHATI NAG\ARUNDHATI NAG.indd 1 SAT, 14 SEP, 2013 11:22 AM \\gra-Z\D\SOCIETY\SOCIETY OCT 2013\Drama - ARUNDHATI NAG\ARUNDHATI NAG.indd 2 SAT, 14 SEP, 2013 11:22 AM drama n Arundhati Nag talks to Society about her unfaltering love for the stage and how she achieved her All the dream of revamping Bengaluru’s stage is cultural scenario by giving its theatre an independent identity Her BY DIVYA J SHEKHAR World he auditorium is packed to the brim. The stage is set and the lights are Tdimmed. For the next hour, only one voice resounds, tearing through the pin-drop silence. As Arundhati Nag delivers a powerful performance in Girish Karnad’s Bikhre Bimb at Ranga Shankara, Bengaluru, the crowd remains spell-bound. The mono-act, Arundhati claims, has been the toughest role of her life, given the challenge of conversing with her television image that is treated as another character. The first thing to strike you in a chat over a cup of coffee at the Ranga Shankara café is the diametrically opposite personality she is, on and off stage. And, you are all ears when the ever- smiling, soft-spoken artiste warmly guides you through her three decade-long tryst with theatre and her efforts to revive, support and encourage the art—with memories, anecdotes, et al. 000 >>Society >>OCTOBER 2013 OCTOBER 2013 >>Society >>000 PHOTOGRAPHS: SANDESH RAVIKUMAR \\gra-Z\D\SOCIETY\SOCIETY OCT 2013\Drama - ARUNDHATI NAG\ARUNDHATI NAG.indd 3 SAT, 14 SEP, 2013 11:22 AM \\gra-Z\D\SOCIETY\SOCIETY OCT 2013\Drama - ARUNDHATI NAG\ARUNDHATI NAG.indd 4 SAT, 14 SEP, 2013 11:22 AM drama drama n n “Arundhati believes in maintaining high standards for children’s theatre as well. “We do not encourage any kind of slapstick humour, and certainly not fairy tales.” “Theatre comes naturally to me, even though I’ve had no formal training. TV makes everything small while cinema magnifies people and places. It is just theatre that presents a person as she or he is—with all the blood, sweat and tears.” Arundhati’s fascination with theatre began when she saw the Ramleela in Delhi as a child. “I saw a male, a sardar, play the role of Sita. Since then, this whole fascination of impersonating got to me, the thrill of being who you are not.” And, when she was made to play the role of a boy in the cultural events of her school, the romance of being another person infatuated her. “I still remember being a Rajasthani boy for a dance performance, twirling my fake moustache. Theatre gives the freedom to lie through your teeth, with the sanction of society,” she smiles. “And, that’s what I love the most.” Going down the memory lane, she remembers how she shifted base from Delhi to Mumbai at the age of 10 and a few years later, was just one step short of enrolling into the JJ School of Arts to become a painter. “But, my mother was not too keen AD on that, so I went to NM College to learn commerce instead. There, I bagged a play, Aur Rangmanch Rota Raha, because of my good Hindi, and even got an award for it. I have never looked back since. My friends tease that the rangmanch is still crying because I refuse to leave it.” A chance encounter with artiste Shama Zaidi kick-started her journey with Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA), where she was cast in a prominent role in the play Ek Chaadar Maili Si. “The IPTA was the training ground that introduced me to stalwarts like Farooque Shaikh, AK Hangal, Manmohan Kishan, Sulabha Arya and others. There was a time when I used to do as many as 42 plays a month in Hindi, Marathi, English and Gujarati, being all of just 17 years old.” Learning came through observation and constant encouragement. “Of course,” she adds, “Being a Maharashtrian and knowing many languages helped.” She smiles nostalgically as she recalls her first brush with professional theatre and how she was astounded when she knew she’ll be paid for acting. “Directors Kamlakar Sarang and Anand Sarang approached me for a Marathi play, Sahaz Jinki Mana, and 000 >>Society >>OCTOBER 2013 OCTOBER 2013 >>Society >>000 \\gra-Z\D\SOCIETY\SOCIETY OCT 2013\Drama - ARUNDHATI NAG\ARUNDHATI NAG.indd 5 SAT, 14 SEP, 2013 11:22 AM \\gra-Z\D\SOCIETY\SOCIETY OCT 2013\Drama - ARUNDHATI NAG\ARUNDHATI NAG.indd 6 SAT, 14 SEP, 2013 11:22 AM drama drama n n “Theatre comes naturally to “The IPTA was the training me, even though I’ve had no H SINGH ground that introduced me to S U formal training. TV makes Y stalwarts like Farooque Shaikh, everything small while cinema H: PRAT AK Hangal, Manmohan Kishan, magnifies people and places. P Sulabha Arya and others.” It is just theatre that presents a PHOTOGRA why a woman wanted to build a theatre, when all over, theatres person as she or he is.” were being pulled down to pave the way for multiplexes. “There were many questions raised about how I would asked me how much money I expected. I was shocked. I never manage funds and whether the cost burden of the extravagant got paid at the IPTA, and kept asking them, ‘Will you really pay theatre would be transferred to the people in the form of high me for my work?’ till they gave me ` 100 for my contribution. It ticket prices, etc. I was not a politician, a rich businesswoman was a king’s ransom. I was the richest girl in college.” or a shrewd industrialist to find my way out easily. But, I was a That’s when an opportunity to be a part of the Indian National woman who loved the stage and had the strength of purpose. I Theatre (INT) knocked at her door. “The INT absorbed the best used to carry the theatre model in the boot of my car, and show actors from different universities for their plays,” she explains. it to everyone who I thought could contribute.” Today, as the Little did Arundhati know that her selection would change her life result of her efforts, her dream stands tall; spread across 10,000 forever, and introduce her to the man she would later marry—the sq ft, in the heart of South Bengaluru—the Ranga Shankara. late actor-director Shankar Nag. “Shankar and I were rivals from “I was fortunate to have the support of many people, right different universities. The fact that we both bagged the ‘Best Actor’ from S Surendranath and Girish Karnad to labourers working award in our respective plays brought us together at the INT.” on daily wages. I remember how a woman contributed ` 5 She fondly reminisces how Shankar would be quiet and shy, towards Ranga Shankara’s construction. It might seem small to while she was a ‘wild cat’. “He would just sit by himself in a us, but I knew that for her, it meant half her day’s wage.” Sure corner, always reading books or solving crossword puzzles. But, enough, all contributors, big or small, share a wall space at the AD we hit it off instantly as we were the only non-Gujaratis in the entrance of Ranga Shankara, as a small tribute. team. It was he who introduced me to the works of great writers Formed on the lines of Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai, Ranga like Albert Camus and Dostoevsky.” When Shankar moved to Shankara does not discriminate on the basis of language. “I Karnataka to work in films, they kept in touch. “Those were the noticed that in Mumbai, theatre is mostly bound by language. days of letters. Shankar was busy with films, but realised that Like, the Shivaji Mandir in Dadar hosts only Marathi plays. At he could not live without theatre.” So, when he asked her to Ranga Shankara, we have a healthy mix of plays in Indian and be a part of his theatre group in the garden city, she grabbed even international languages offered to people at prices below the offer. “We formed the Sanket theatre group and did a lot ` 250. We operate on the philosophy of ‘A Play a Day’, which of plays in Kannada. I did not know Kannada except for bad means that we make it a point to host more than 300 performances words my father jokingly used with his friends,” she says with ...in Harlesden High Street of different genres every year. Apart from hosting, we also a playful grin. “Shankar’s mother, who would go on to be my produce our own plays. Also, the fact that Ranga Shankara has future mother-in-law, would translate the script in Devnagri.” but not without severe injuries. It took Arundhati 10 years to no doors at the entrance is testimony of our belief that theatre Eventually, Shankar proposed to her on November 7, 1979, gather herself and realise her dream of an independent theatre should embrace anyone and everyone as its own.” and they were happily married two days later. Yes, in two days. space in Bengaluru, a tribute to the memory of her husband. She admits that it is the selfless passion for theatre in the “Well, I insisted that if we didn’t marry on November 9, that is “There were plays happening at many cultural venues, but hearts of the people associated with Ranga Shankara that Shankar’s birth-date, we will have to wait till mine, which is in nothing solely dedicated to theatre and its development.