Saurabh Shukla in Barff, a play presented by Centre Stage Creations in association with t2, at GD Birla Sabhagar on July 22. Written and directed by Shukla, the play told the story of a doctor (played by Shukla) who ended up one snowy night in a deserted village in Kashmir, to treat the ailing child of the only residents left in the village (top right) —  taxi driver Ghulam Rasool (Sunil Palwal) and his wife Nafisa (Sadiya Siddiqui). 
What began as another slice-of-life drama that touched upon a variety of issues such as terrorism and unemployment, soon turned into a thriller with an uncanny feel. Will the couple kill the doctor? Do they have anything to hide? The two-hour play, produced by AGP World, made the audience ponder, is truth something other than what you believe in? What if your truth clashes with mine?

In town with his play Barff, staged at GD Birla Sabhagar on July 22, Saurabh Shukla took time out from his rehearsals for a t2 chat.

You have come to Calcutta with a play after a long time...

Yes, I had staged my earlier play Two to Tango, Three to Jive a couple of times in Calcutta. We got a great response then. Barff is a very special play. It’s a thriller. We hardly see a thriller on stage these days. Interestingly, I had written the script first as a film. It took me almost seven years to write this. Then I got an offer to do it on stage. I thought, why not?

How did you come into the world of acting?

I was quite interested in movies since my childhood. My school friends and I had this dream to make a film one day. Then a friend told us that it doesn’t require much money to do theatre, which also has acting, story, dialogue, music and everything that a film has. So we decided to do theatre as a step towards cinema. Obviously when I started doing theatre I realised it’s a different medium altogether. And I completely fell in love with the medium. 

You did your first play in college?
Well, yes. Sab Chalta Hai was the first play I did in my college (SGTB Khalsa College, Delhi University). I started doing proper theatre in 1985. My first proper play was Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge. I played Eddie Carbone.

Did you go for formal training?
Not really. But as it always happens, once you start doing something, slowly you start understanding the details of the art. And then you start learning it. All my years in theatre, when I was in Delhi, were my learning years. 

Who were your role models in theatre at that time? 
When I started doing theatre it was a low patch in the Delhi theatre scene. All the biggies or most of them — Pankaj Kapur, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri — had shifted to Mumbai. Physically there was no icon in front of us. We had only heard about the golden era of Delhi theatre. So my contemporaries (Manoj Bajpayee, Ashish Vidyarthi, Piyush Mishra) and I had this dream, individually, to do great theatre. We started and got good response.

Did you work with Ebrahim Alkazi?
Yes I did. I have very fond memories of Alkazi saab. He was like this legend who went out of the theatre scene for almost 14 years, and then returned. That is the year, 1991, when I joined National School of Drama Repertory Company and worked under him for a year. We did a number of plays including Ghashiram Kotwal. I learnt a lot in those times.

What prompted you to shift to Mumbai?
In 1992, Shekhar Kapur gave me a very important role in Bandit Queen. Once the shooting ended, Shekhar asked me which medium I liked better — theatre or cinema. I said, of course I liked theatre more, but I also had a great desire to direct films. I said I would come to Mumbai to become his assistant. He smiled and said, “I will call you for an acting role.” And he did fulfil his promise. He called me in 1993 to Mumbai to do a TV series called Tehkikaat in which I played the second fiddle Gopi to Vijay Anand’s detective Sam.

And since then how many films have you acted in?
I have no idea! I know that there is a site called IMDB, which keeps a track of this. I never keep a track of how many films I have done.

You have played dark, comic and mixed characters. Which roles attract you now?
I always say I have only one life and I don’t want anything but I want everything!
Sibendu Das
Pictures: Arnab Mondal

SS speak: milestone movies