Prakhar Gautam, while pursuing his CA, kept wondering if he had to take up a job in a similar line if he cleared his exams. He says that leaving his CA course midway to pursue his passion for writing and storytelling was an instinctive decision. Now, a theatre actor, director of the Delhi-based theatre group Parindey Storytellers, Prakhar enjoys the freedom in bringing his stories alive onto the stage, he enjoys the world he creates. He was in town recently to stage a series of plays, Aina , Megha re and Pehchaan , all centered around Delhi (he’d written, directed and also acted in them) and yet having a universal appeal in it.
“Of all the things I do, I feel writing comes to me more naturally. In Delhi, what I usually see are only adapted plays. I wanted to create something original in the theatre-scene. Theatre for me is a pure, uncorrupted medium for expression. Uncorrupted-because you do the show live, you prepare for it, there are no specific camera angles or gimmicks whatsoever,” Prakhar avers.
He was 19 when he stepped into the world of theatre. Prakhar felt theatre writing and acting could be learnt too. The youngster read a lot about works on and by Konstantin Stanislavski and Rabindranath Tagore. “I tried to understand their depth of character building and acting. While our repertoire is to an extent dependent on Natyashastra, international literature opened me to acting nuances that were more natural and also how it was approached like any other theoretical subject.”
Tough wouldn’t be the right word to describe the efforts to create original plays, the author of two books Acting As a Way of Life, Sootradhar: Shabdon Ka Zariya says. “It is tasking and time-taking, yet if you follow a certain process in building stories, nothing can be as satisfying as that. Humans don’t have the luxury to create much, it’s God who does that. It’s more gratifying when I create a world on stage, give birth to characters that I can call mine and be a certain God to them.”
Prakhar says the difficult aspect was to create an identity for himself and the group among the audience who are used to watching adapted versions of classics. Parindey has now about 30-40 original stories, which they continue to improvise in shows across the country. “As a director, it’s a challenge and an opportunity to understand the different backdrops that each actor comes from and mould him/her according to the part.”
Only when we stage stories that are relevant to our existence, that are not repetitive and ensure a strong word-of-mouth, will theatre show immediate progress, he opines. “Regardless of how good or bad a film is, people give it a chance every weekend. That’s how theatre should be too, people should be excited to watch a play and come across a newer story each time. Theatre has suffered at the hands of technology and is definitely in need of a revival.”
Cinema and theatre have often been media where mutual exchange of actors and directors has thrived. He mentions that a theatre actor always has the advantage of staying in the character for a longer time. “The medium can be an avenue that actors who’ve hit a rough patch can consider for refining their skill too.” Prakhar finds the theatre scene in Delhi similar to Hyderabad despite the lesser number of theatre groups in the latter. “I have always come across theatre actors who’re passionate to deliver their best in Hyderabad and I only see it improving further over time.”
