When Gouri Dutt arrived in Mumbai five years ago from Pune, the 20-year-old interior designer joined Prithvi Theatre as a volunteer — doing bit roles in plays, handling backstage work, assisting in production and designing posters. It was only a year or so later, that her colleagues came to know that she is the granddaughter of the legendary filmmaker and actor Guru Dutt and songstress Geeta Dutt. “They were quite surprised,” smiles Gouri. Five years later, she made her directorial debut with the play Outsider, that was staged as part of the Hindi Ananda Festival at NCPA yesterday.

Gouri Dutt’s first play, Outsider, is an adaptation of Albert Camus’ The Stranger.

Growing up in Pune, young Gouri was always surrounded by movies. Coming to Mumbai and becoming part of the acting world would seem like an obvious choice. But not before she made a slight detour towards interior designing. “I am a certified interior designer but somehow, a nine-to-five job was not working out for me,” she recalls. The ‘keeda’ of doing something creative drove her to come and try her luck here. “Films are what I grew up with, but theatre was new and I wanted to see what it was all about,” she says.