A few months into the lockdown last year, the idea for a dedicated platform for showcasing theatre started taking shape in actor Shreyas Talpade’s mind. Conversations with theatre friends brought attention to the urgent need of helping the community through an initiative that would be concrete and long-lasting. At the same time, he felt the form’s image itself needed a transformation. “Theatre has been unnecessarily intellectualised,” says Talpade. “Theatre is, in fact, everything. Today, I feel web [shows] on OTTs are a great mix of theatre and film because we have the freedom to experiment and people are accepting these experiments,” observes the actor, who felt that theatre needed to reach every household, so that more people could be exposed to its magic.

Talpade’s own connection with theatre goes back to his school days when he performed regularly in various one-act and street plays and participated in competitions. He went on later, to have a long involvement with professional theatre, which continued till 2005, the year his film Iqbal got made. He has been a part of more than 3,000-odd stage shows in Marathi, Hindi and English, and remembers fondly the performances outside Prithvi Theatre, which functioned almost as rites of passage for young actors. “Whatever I am today is all thanks to theatre,” he admits. “At some point, every theatre actor wishes to do something in return.”