Pranay Gupta receives the President’s award from A.P.J Abdul Kalam in Delhi. A Telegraph picture

Siliguri, May 24: Twenty-nine-year-old Pranay Gupta’s feats have helped put Siliguri on the national English theatre map.

Son of a local tea producer, Pranay was recently conferred the President’s medal for outstanding achievement in theatre.

Pranay, who is now making waves playing Vibhishan in Legend of Ram, said his tryst with theatre began very early in life.

“I was drawn to acting and the stage while I was still in school. My first real effort to get actively involved in theatre began when I took admission to a college in Pune. I joined like-minded people and formed a theatre group called Silhouette. We produced a number of plays and indulged in a number of literary activities, including reading sessions and discussions on literature. Since then, there has been no looking back,” said Pranay.

Theatre may have been an abiding passion, but Pranay’s family was not convinced that working on English plays was a durable career option.

“Since childhood, Pranay has been involved in theatre and literary activities. However, I was not supportive of taking it up as a career because it cannot be called a secure profession. I asked him to pursue an MBA degree so that he could prepare himself for business. He joined Symbiosis Institute in Pune but left after a year. He also secured admission to the country’s most prestigious business school, IIM Ahmedabad, but dropped out after two days. At that point of time, I realised that theatre was his calling and decided to support him wholeheartedly,” said Pranay’s father J.K. Gupta.

In 1997, the budding actor left for Delhi, where he met his guru Barry John, a man whose name is synonymous with theatre. “I joined his Theatre Action Group where I received comprehensive grounding on contemporary theatre,” said Pranay, who has also branched out into script writing and other aspects of theatre.

After two false starts in business studies, Gupta proceeded to acquire a degree in film and theatre from Harvard University in the US.

Pranay, who is deeply influenced by Indian religious texts and spiritual masters like Swami Vivekananda, said he was now working to “give back to the region what I have got from it”. His plans include setting up a non-profit project that would allow Siliguri theatre buffs to interface with national-level artistes.

After his return from the US, Pranay immersed himself in Legend of Ram, a large-scale production directed by Amir Reza Hussain and Virat Hussain. The modern adaptation of Valmiki's Ramayana had a series of sets and the audience, seated on a moving platform, was carried from one set to another during different Acts.

“The play was one of the world’s biggest productions and this year alone we have staged around 40 shows. The response of the audience has been tumultuous,” said Pranay.