Saurabh Shukla recollects his love affair with stage

From playing gangster and perfecting the comic act in Indian cinema to directing the popular play Two To Tango Three To Jive in 2011 the versatile Saurabh Shukla seems to always have something up his sleeve Unlike purists Shuklas encounter with theatre didnt begin with a diehard love for the medium When I was in the sixth grade in school I wanted to make films I was a Delhi boy who had no connections in the world of cinema In college a bunch of friends who were also interested in cinema figured that since we didnt have the knowhow and access to filmmaking we should take up theatre as it involved everything we loved from stories scripts sets costumes and acting minus the camera Thats how I took up theatre confesses ShuklaSaurabh ShuklaStage screen stageDelhi had a thriving theatre scene The first play I put together was Sab Chalta Hai a satire based in Delhi University It was a work of fiction about a day when the University finds itself without a Vice Chancellor The administration picks the paanwala as an eligible candidate as he has a great rapport and a khata book of pending payments with everyone including students and the faculty he recallsPost this encounter Shukla fell in love with theatre and forgot all about films in the period in between 1984 to 1993 The first play I had seen was The Glass Menagerie written by Tennessee Williams and presented by a Delhibased group called Drama Tech Another play that impacted me was the Phantom Of the Opera that I saw in London he recollects Shukla made the shift to cinema and moved to Mumbai when he got a call from filmmaker Shekhar Kapur for the film Bandit Queen Post this he got involved in cinema and though he watched plays as an audience he couldnt find a way to go back to the medium You have to commit to being physically present and it means letting go a few films when you want to work on a play In 201112 I finally decided to do a play and thats how Two to Tango Three To Jive came about he says The play has completed over 90 showsSnow thrillerHis latest directorial venture where he also plays the lead Barff is a thriller set in Kashmir during winter and spans over one night I got a call from NSD National School of Drama in November to perform at the Bharangam Theatre Festival which is a prestigious platform and features plays from across the globe I didnt have a play in mind then I went back to my writing and found Barff which I had written as a film We had found a producer but the film got delayed Its a thriller with three actors and one space and I felt it lent itself to theatre says Shukla The play has the same premise but the execution and screenplay has been modified for the mediumLike a movie I wanted to transport the audience to Kashmir where the play is set not just with the dialogues and the storyline but also by recreating the physicality of the location It is common practice abroad I roped in Raghav Mishra a popular set designer from Delhi to create the sets We dont have budgets like the Broadway but AGP Ashwin Gidwani Productions has been helpful I wanted to show snowfall on stage since the story takes place on a winter night A lot of research went into creating 40 feet snow like found on a mountain Equipment was not easily available and we almost ended up creating our own machine shares ShuklaAll about timingAccording to him the onehour 40minute play is a dramatic thriller and not merely a whodunit Hitchcock never made whodunits He made thrillers that had drama in it Its not about finding out who committed a crime at the climax The idea is to show people that this is bizarre but there is a possibility for it to happen to anybody replies ShuklaThe play has a double cast Actor Vinay Pathak will be replace Shukla in the lead for certain shows Audio Block has created the music for the play Costumes are based on what people in the valley wear in the winters The collective laughter sorrow and discovery of the audience during a play is rewarding Theatre is not very commercial and is not answerable to money unlike film so you get to experiment says Shukla before rushing off to the rehearsalOn April 10 6 pmAt Jamshed Bhabha Theatre NCPA Nariman PointCall 22824567 On April 17 730 pm At StAndrews Auditorium Bandra WCall 26401657