Shashi Kapoor signs a copy of The Prithviwallahs

Doing theatre for a living, travelling the country for shows, joining films, nursing a secret passion for the stage and, finally, giving shape to a dream? Sometimes, Shashi Kapoor feels the resemblance between his father?s life and his is too uncanny to believe.

But that?s how it has been over the decades, ever since the youngest son of Prithviraj Kapoor quit school at age 15 for theatre. ?My father wanted to be a theatre actor and it was like a junoon, an obsession to the point of madness, in him. I have inherited that from him. I quit school to join the stage and I think I made the right decision because I learnt more from theatre than I could have from the college canteen,? explains Shashi Kapoor, settling down for a chat before the launch of his book The Prithviwallahs in town.

With Prithvi Theatres, Prithviraj Kapoor founded the country?s first professional Hindi theatre company in 1944. He would tour the country staging plays that were lapped up by the audience.

?My father started off in Calcutta. He worked with New Theatres and shifted base to Bombay when I was barely one,? remembers Shashi Kapoor. In Bombay, Prithviraj got the chance to act in the talkie film Cinema Girl in 1929. But a yearning for stage found him joining Grant Anderson?s English theatrical company in 1931. Years later, he set up his own company and ran it for 16 years.

?I also did something like my father. I travelled the country doing shows with him, shifted to films and then joined my father-in-law Geoffrey Kendal?s English company Shakespearana. We played to packed houses at New Empire and at the St Xavier?s auditorium,? says Shashi.

Once the curtains came down on Prithvi Theatres in 1960, all the front actors made a move to films.

?Raj, Shammi, Premnath... I was 22 then and was married with a son. In fact, Jennifer and I were very content doing theatre. I had a family to support and was forced to join films out of sheer economic necessity,? the 60-something actor reveals.

But one thing bugged Shashi ? Prithviraj?s dream of building a theatre complex where people could avail of all sorts of facilities, a space where they could rehearse and hold workshops.

?So my wife and I got hold of land and put in my money. We also did a cricket show at Eden Gardens to raise funds. There was a huge crowd. Calcutta is always very hospitable to actors,? he adds.

Prithvi Theatre took off in 1978 in Juhu. The 200-seater auditorium hosts more than 400 performances a year, holds an annual theatre festival and organises a string of workshops for children and adults.

?I thought of writing a book because I felt people should know about all this. The Prithviwallahs is about the people connected with the theatre company and the theatre complex,? sums up Shashi, who has livened up the pages with anecdotes and rare photographs from the family album.