London, Feb. 28 :     Calcutta, beware! Steven Berkoff is about to hit the town. The renowned actor, director and writer flies from London tomorrow to begin a month-long British Council-sponsored tour of India with his one-man show, Shakespeare?s Villains: A Masterclass in Evil. Berkoff takes audiences through the varying degrees of evil portrayed by such villains as Iago, Shylock, Macbeth and Richard III . Born and brought up in the East End of London, Berkoff is generally accepted as a tour de force in British theatre. In India, too, his name will strike a chord as the actor who played two notorious film baddies ? General Orlov in Octopussy, the Bond movie starring Indian tennis player Vijay Amritraj, and General Pordovsky in Rambo II. Berkoff is a man who has in the past shown irritation in no uncertain terms when audiences have rustled chocolate wrappers, coughed or otherwise allowed their attention to wander. When told Indian audiences tend to wander in and out and gossip with neighbours, the controversial man of British theatre was sweetness and light. ?Don?t mind if they eat curry,? he responded. ?I?m not in a church.? He will hold workshops at the Taj Bengal on March 16 and 17, followed by a performance at the G.D. Birla Sabhaghar on March 18. At Jadavpur University, there will be a workshop on March 19, with a performance the following day. Speaking before departure for his first trip to India, Berkoff said he was relieved to hear that the Bard had quite a following in India. Although Berkoff is not familiar with Bollywood baddies, he has a well-developed philosophy on villains. He finds them much more real than heroes. While heroes are ?stereotypical dull? ? he dismisses Romeo talking about love or Henry V on patriotism as ?urbane concepts? ? villains are ?curious creatures, unbalanced, psychotic elements of what they are and why they are. I was trying to make a connection between what motivates them.? In his show, he performs speeches from Shakespeare?s plays ?rather like opera singers perform arias?. Most of the soliloquies, he points out, are like mini-histories. He argues that a villain has to manipulate his way through the world and cause upset without being detected. He quotes Richard III: ?I can murder whilst I smile.? Shakespeare, he adds, is littered with the two-facedness of villains, such as Macbeth: ?False face must hide what false heart doth know.? His villains include some surprising choices ? Coriolanus, Oberon and Hamlet. He concedes they are not obvious choices. He explains Hamlet ?becomes a candidate when one realises he manages to cause the deaths of half a dozen people, including some innocent ones?. In his show, says Berkoff, ?there are as many different kinds of villainy as there are personalities and I have chosen to peer inside the heads of a few of them?. Berkoff?s autobiography, Free Association, reveals that his involvement with playing villains began when he was cast as London (now ex-) gangster Charlie Richardson in a TV film, McVicar, based on the life of an ex-convict, John McVicar. He has also played Hitler in a TV epic, War and Remembrance, in 1989 ? ?after him you can go no further in villainy?. Berkoff often creates his own work because as an actor, he has felt frustrated at having to rely on others to give him employment. His tour will also take in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Lucknow, Chennai and Bangalore.