Chiranjeet performs Just Prolap. Picture by Sanat Kr Sinha

What Billy Crystal does so successfully on Broadway, Tolly actor Chiranjeet is trying on the Calcutta stage.... Just Prolap is a rambling of people and places, memories and motives that have shaped the actor. After the debut show at Natya Akademi last week, Chiranjeet is ready to be Dipak!

A t2 chat...

What made you turn to theatre after films and jatra?

The stage is where I began my acting career. Even when I was studying engineering in Jadavpur University, my theatre group Prabaha was staging plays by Badal Sircar, Mohit Chattopadhyay and others. And it was a commercial play, Nagpash, that changed my life. It got me the attention I needed for screen roles. It created a Chiranjeet from Dipak Chakraborty (his real name). Chiranjeet is still valuable to me because he puts food on the table but I am trying to return to Dipak, to allow him to step out and make a mark.

What do you plan to do with Just Prolap?

This theatre project, conceived by Shantanu Banerjee of Total Theatre, seemed to me a way of breaking conventions. I watch plays whenever I can and everywhere I find a design, a desire to please and win praise. I wanted to know how the audience would react if I addressed them as myself.

Just Prolap is an unplanned performance...

Just Prolap was meant to be just that, unplugged ramblings. There is no script. I have deliberately avoided even thinking of a framework, the only criteria I have set myself is that of truth. Not a single untrue word will be uttered on stage.

What do you talk about?

I talk of my life, people who have been important to me... like my father, cartoonist Shailo Chakraborty, and Satyajit Ray. I share fond memories of Shibram Chattopadhyay and PC Sorcar (Sr) who would come to our house to collect illustrations from my father.... I talk of my experience in Tollywood, my ideas on how to promote good cinema and theatre. At least this is what I talked of on the first show. The next show may be totally different.

You paint on stage too...

Drawing and painting are also part of me. I used to illustrate Sunil Gangopadhyay’s stories when he wrote as Nillohit. I even did a cover illustration for Sandesh and I still paint. Some of my father’s skills may have just rubbed off on me...

What are the learnings from the first show?

I feel some more planning may have been necessary. Maybe I should choose and use my props with care. There could be some basic lighting, like a shower of light from the top that would make both Dipak and Chiranjeet look like puppets being operated from above or by each other. I could use one harsh all-revealing light because that is what this performance seems to me... a confessional.

What’s next?

I will take it easy for a while and enjoy myself. I don’t believe in planning. Let life take its course...