Radhika Apte in Anahita Oberoi’s play Bombay Black

Being the leading lady of Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s Antaheen has not lessened Radhika Apte’s loyalty to the stage. After her eye-catching journo act in the Tollywood film, the Pune girl is back home doing what she loves best — theatre.

A t2 chat...

Will theatre take a backseat if more films come your way?

No. Now that I’m doing the Marathi play Garbo, I have already said no to many films. I really don’t want to compare theatre and films. They are two different things and I like doing both. Whether I will choose a film or a play depends on the project. If a really crappy theatre project comes my way I will rather do an interesting film. Nothing is planned and I am taking things as they come.

Has theatre helped you with your screen performance?

Yes, theatre has helped me enhance my performance in films because you’re not completely alien to acting and you know how to think like the character you’re playing.

How did you get into professional theatre?

After Class X, I got into Fergusson College in Pune, which is known for its cultural activities. There I started acting in a lot of college plays. That’s when I met theatre director Mohit Takalkar and joined his group Aasakta. It’s essentially a Marathi theatre group that also does plays in Hindi and English. I’ve been with them for the past five years.

How did the lead role in Lilette Dubey’s Kanyadaan happen?

I had done a Marathi play called Purnaviram for the Writers’ Bloc Festival two years ago when some theatre artistes from Mumbai watched my performance and told Lilette about me. Lilette, at that time, was casting for the English play Kanyadaan. She contacted me and offered me the lead role of Jyoti.

So you do plays outside Aasakta too...

I did Samuel Beckett’s That Time for Rehan Engineer and also went on to do Anahita Oberoi’s Bombay Black, which was a Shiamak Davar production. So even though I’m based in Pune and basically a part of Aasakta, I started getting offers to act with other groups, which I have taken up.

How would you define the theatre you do?

The plays I do are not really commercial theatre. I mostly do Marathi theatre, but it’s very different from the traditional song-and-dance-based plays one generally associates with Marathi theatre. I also do plays in Hindi and English.... What I do is amateur experimental theatre. In Samuel Beckett’s That Time, the cast consisted of just three girls reading out passages, whereas in Tu, a poetry-based Marathi play rooted in the Sufi philosophy of love, I play a woman who shuts herself up in her own world. In the English play Kanyadaan, I played a girl from a socialist family.

I did Matra Ratra, a bedroom drama about a couple in a live-in relationship. I played a successful film actress in Purnaviram, which is about my friendship with a gay man. Brain Surgeon was a bizarre play where I appeared as an imaginary girl in a boy’s fantasies. I had trained in kathak for eight years and also learnt contemporary ballet, so that helped me play a kotha dancer in Bombay Black.

Which roles have you enjoyed the most?

I like to do different roles as long as they are substantial and exciting. I have played the lead in almost all the plays I have acted in. They all seem to be woman-centric roles but that wasn’t intentional. In fact, the Marathi play I am now working on is turning out to be the most challenging. It’s called Garbo, written nearly 40 years ago by Mahesh Elkunchwar.

The subject is still very relevant. The woman I am playing is almost 32 years old, while I am 24. It’s difficult because I am learning how to talk and walk like her. Garbo is a B-grade actress who’s not getting enough work, so she sleeps around. She has three male friends but doesn’t know whose child she’s expecting. I am also working on Matra Ratra in English.

Who would you consider a mentor?

I won’t say I have had a mentor but most of my plays have been with Mohit (Takalkar). It has been a learning process.