Naseeruddin Shah: I love working with young actors, it gives me more joy than acting myself – Times of India


It’s not very often that actors who move from theatre to the big screen return to the stage. Naseeruddin Shah, however, proved his love for the medium with the many plays that he has helmed and acted in over the years. The pandemic kept him away from the stage, something that, in his last interview, he confessed, “led to major withdrawal symptoms.” When theatres and auditoriums were allowed to reopen after the second lockdown, the actor once again returned to performing live as soon as he could. In a conversation with BT, he spoke about returning to the stage, the limited success of live online performances and why guiding young actors gives him more joy than acting. Excerpts:

Theatres and auditoriums have opened doors to patrons. Do you think people are eager to head back to watch plays? And are there any restrictions when it comes to staging a play in the new normal?
I think people are as keen to come to a theatre as actors are to perform on stage. Like last time, Prithvi was among the first theatres to stage plays this time around, too. What I am worried about is the other theatres. There are many theatres that used to stage three-four plays per day, I wonder how they will survive. The Marathi theatre actors would perform plays almost every day, and their livelihood depended on theatres. I don’t see them (the theatres) jumping into it quickly, maybe they are gauging the situation. We (his theatre group) don’t have to worry about these things because none of our productions are gigantic. Among the recent productions we staged,
Ismat Apa Ke Naam required a three-member crew, while the other had me reciting poems.

During the lockdown last year, many actors opted for the online medium to perform skits, plays and readings, etc. However, that momentum seems to have faded out now. What do you make of the virtual staging of plays and its scope?

I have enjoyed performing online. Some actors have said that the online audience has affected them. But an actor cannot cite that as a factor that affects their performance. An actor can turn a good audience into a bad one and vice versa. Sometimes, the audience reacts to you and sometimes it doesn’t. Every audience is different, and you can’t say that you are dumping them or the performance mid-way because of the way they have reacted. It’s sad that the number of performances staged online were lesser this year (during the course of the second lockdown and afterwards).

Will any of the new productions you stage be influenced by the pandemic?
I hope and I am certain that the youngsters who are writing plays today will definitely tackle the subject. At the moment, I don’t have any such work in the offing, but I would definitely like to attempt something if somebody writes about it.

In your last interview with Bombay Times, you had said that guiding young actors has become a sort of mission for you now. Do you feel that senior actors should consciously work towards mentoring young actors?
I feel the need to do it and I enjoy it very much. The work I do with actors is sparking off their imagination and pointing out to them how it should be used in their work, and of course, the many disciplines that go with the work of acting, which too many actors overlook. Generally, it’s considered that either you have the talent, or you don’t, some people can act and some people can’t, which is a complete fallacy. Anybody can act provided they put in the effort in the right direction, and are is willing to expose themselves emotionally, which is something actors shouldn’t be scared of. And many people are afraid of that, and that’s why they don’t become actors. I think everybody enjoys acting, and whichever profession we are in, we all have to do a little bit of it every now and then (laughs!). I love working with young actors and helping them achieve their potential. That is the greatest joy and it gives me more joy than doing it myself. Seeing them struggle with something and helping them conquer it is a fantastic feeling. I don’t want them to become clones of me, certainly not. I would want them to find their own identity and the work that I do with them should help them do that.

Were you able to do that during the pandemic?
Not really, because you can’t do this kind of work online. It’s a hands-on job, a person-to-person equation. You are dealing with another human being, not a machine. You can rehearse online, but you can’t do an acting workshop online. There are too many things that need to be pointed out, a gentle approach is required and also a kick in the pants when needed. Your presence comforts the actor and that’s why it is not possible to do it online. But in the short period that we had in the lockdown, I did some work with the people in my company, and recently, I did some classes.

It’s often said that the quality of content in Hindi films is compromised because of the star system. Do you think that digital medium will score over films in this aspect?
Yes, because the makers are not facing the pressure of a producer sitting on their head and insisting on casting well-known faces or a song or an action scene when not needed. Then, there’s no censorship. It is giving a lot of young makers the freedom to do what they believe in without the pressure of box office returns, Friday opening and all that nonsense. And what’s most heartening are the short films being made, mostly by youngsters. I have acted in several of them, which have been absolutely wonderful. I think it is an excellent grounding for these filmmakers to go on to feature films and realise that you can deal with subjects like these, not conform to the formula and the predictable, and yet, make a good film. It’s very tough to make a short film because for that you don’t have the luxury of stretching it out. The digital medium is the future. Even the big filmmakers are releasing their films on digital platforms. I don’t know what that bodes for the film industry, but it probably would mean an improvement in the quality of movies because you can’t have blood-soaked dramas being watched by families in their living room over dinner.

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