Film-makers might ask budding actors to brush up their acting skills on stage, but maverick workshop teacher N. Kumar advises fledgling actors to train in front of the camera.
Kumar, who has been conducting film workshops in Bollywood for the past nine years, says reading a film’s script is an essential prerequisite before training actors. “I also hold meetings with the director to understand his vision and know how he plans to take his film forward. To know how each character has been etched, I even record his instructions.”
With his unconventional approach and method, Kumar helps actors to analyse the script and camera. “As a workshop is basically a rehearsal before the shooting process, I can get the best out of actors in these interactive meetings. It also helps me to experiment a bit by working on the actor’s looks. Conducting a workshop before the film shooting has psychological advantages as ego hassles between actors get sorted out. Actors get mentally prepared and know the mind-set of their screen character.”
The workshop, says Kumar, has to be conducted in a manner that actors feel that they can raise the bar up by a few notches. Moreover, workshops save a lot of revenue for the producer as the shooting cost per day is between Rs.5 lakh and Rs.8 lakh, he adds.
Kumar likes to conduct his workshops outside Mumbai so that the professional bonding can develop between actors. In the hit film Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, he says, the young cast had an engaging workshop that helped them to show their chemistry on screen, he adds.
A Delhiite, Kumar feels Bollywood is a professional place where an actor has to be competent to survive. “In the industry, a budding actor has to make his own space and live up to the expectation of the director. No producer will risk putting his money on an actor who is not successful. Quite a few actors who had godfathers in the industry have vanished after just one film.”
Kumar trained Abhay Deol and Soha Ali Khan for film Ahista Ahista. “Shiva Nair’s film was a love triangle that was critically acclaimed. I am impressed with Soha’s acting skills and dedication. She can do wonders if the film has a good script. In Rang De Basanti she showed her mettle.”
In Exchange Offer, Kumar conducted a workshop for Rahul Bose and Esha Deol even though the two have done a number of film projects.
For Arjun Rampal’s film I See U, Kumar conducted a workshop ostensibly for the newcomer Vipasha Agarwal. “Though she was a good model, Vipasha was a rank newcomer as far as films were concerned. In the workshop I found her acting bland but she overcame the hurdle and performed her scenes quite competently. Despite this the film flopped. The whole game is that the film has to work.”
Kumar learnt the skills of direction and acting while working under eminent theatre personality Barry John in Delhi. “Barry is my mentor, all my basics in theatre were learnt under his guidance. During our theatre days in 1990s, I found him really up to date with acting and theatre in our country as well as in the West. He was a voracious reader. Once he directed a Western drama at the National School of Drama.”
Kumar joined Barry’s Theatre Action Group (TAG) in which Shah Rukh Khan, Manoj Bajpayi and Divya Seth were his seniors. “Besides Barry and Mahesh Dattani, I was the only person who was directing. So at TAG I got a chance to train myself in acting, direction and adapting Western drama into contemporary plays.”
These days, Kumar is giving the finishing touches to his upcoming musical in Delhi. “It has been inspired by the Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’. I have amalgamated live band and theatre. I am trying to rope in a couple of artistes from Bollywood. It is going to be a unique spectacle,” says Kumar, who is directing this venture.
Kumar has started a three-month course, “actor’s lab”, for aspiring actors in Delhi for which he has tied up with iDreamtheatre. “The course is specifically designed for people who want to make a career as an actor in front of the camera. It has been created keeping in mind the needs of the fast growing and ever-changing world of cinema and television. You have to be quick in front of the camera. Professional camera men and crew have also been invited so that students get a feel of close ups and mid shots. It is all mind training and not bookish knowledge.”
The course, he says, will develop physical, cerebral and technical skills, essential for a professional actor. There will be no conventional methods of teaching. Text books and black boards would be replaced by games, exercises, tasks and project.”
In theatre, Kumar has directed a number of plays including Room No 420, Mangta Hai, A Flea In Her Ear, Manto and Khamosh! Adalat Zari Hai.
