Mumbai: In an exclusive interview with actor Ashutosh Rana, where he talked about his new return to theatre with the new play 'Humaare Ram'. Also, shares his character of “Lankesh”. Then, he said that, the “audience is the best judge”. In the last, he said, theatre is in his DNA and the art of voice modulation.
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00:00So, hello sir, welcome to INS and first of all, congratulations on your theatre play in our village.
00:05Thank you very much.
00:07You are coming back to the theatre after a long time.
00:11You are back to the theatre after doing so much work in films.
00:15What is your mind space? What is going on?
00:17See, I believe that theatre is a training ground.
00:21Films are a form of performance.
00:24You realize that you are performing in Bareilly and at the same time you are performing in Berlin.
00:31But in theatre, if you are performing in Mumbai,
00:35you are not able to see the whole of Mumbai.
00:37You are only able to see the people who are sitting in the audience.
00:40But if you look at it, there is no importance of such training,
00:45which does not give you the opportunity to perform.
00:47And people do not appreciate such performances,
00:49which do not have extensive training.
00:52So, I believe that theatre is a training institute,
00:55which prepares you.
00:57And it tries to bring a trained artist or a trained warrior to the world.
01:07So, I believe that training is very important for any performance.
01:14And since I am from the National School of Drama,
01:17So, if you look at our original DNA, it is the DNA of Rang Manch.
01:22And you are playing the role of Lankesh.
01:24I was listening to your interview earlier.
01:26Lankesh is a character who has a lot of depth.
01:29Like you said, he is a scholar.
01:31He has a lot of understanding of the universe.
01:33He is a great scholar.
01:36It is such a layered character when you get to play such an actor.
01:41It is a treat for any of them.
01:43For you, when you were understanding this character,
01:46you were doing more additions to it.
01:48You have read a lot of literature.
01:50You have seen a lot of things.
01:51You have written a book.
01:53What are the things that you have added to it to make it better?
01:58See, in our Ramayana,
02:00because Ramayana is such a book,
02:02or Ramcharitmanas is such a book,
02:04which has been read and heard by millions of people.
02:08But even after that,
02:11there are a lot of incidents and chapters
02:14about which there has been less discussion.
02:16So we have tried to add those chapters as well.
02:19And I feel that
02:21in the story that you have heard,
02:24when you and I sum up the incidents that we have heard less of,
02:28then its presentation and the content that we get from it,
02:31the return is amazing.
02:34That is what happened.
02:35There are a lot of incidents here,
02:37which you will get to see.
02:39Whether it is the worship of Devadhi Dev Mahadev,
02:43with which he proved Mahadev.
02:45Or when he...
02:47In this, you will get to see a perspective
02:49that you and I don't know
02:51that Shurpanakha's husband was Vidyutjiva,
02:54whose murder was committed by Ravana.
02:56So we only saw Shurpanakha's character
02:58that she goes to Paramatma Ram,
03:00and she has her own proposal,
03:03and under that proposal, we only saw that.
03:06But what is the motivation behind that?
03:08We didn't see Shurpanakha's motivation.
03:10We don't know about the Shiva Linga of Mahadev
03:13on Rameshwaram,
03:15or very few people know about it.
03:17So to establish it,
03:18Ravana was called by Paramatma Shri Ram.
03:20Whereas the two were going to destroy each other's enemies.
03:25They were going to kill each other.
03:27But when you say that
03:29whenever someone comes in contact with a respectable man,
03:32then he becomes respectable.
03:34But when you call your beloved Ram,
03:37he becomes arrogant.
03:39So why don't you call Ram with any emotion?
03:42The nature of Ram is that
03:44he destroys you.
03:46So there are many such incidents
03:48that you will get to see in this.
03:51There is a set of responsibilities.
03:53It is their duty.
03:54They do their work.
03:56But this happens in two ways
03:58because the audience also has a responsibility.
04:00It is said that there are many versions of the Ramayana.
04:03There is something in India,
04:04there is something in Indonesia,
04:05and there is something in Malaysia.
04:07How important is it for the audience
04:09to include all these stories in their minds?
04:13Or should they listen to it carefully
04:16and learn from it?
04:18I feel that when a viewer comes to a hall,
04:21whether it is a theatre hall or a cinema hall,
04:24initially they have told their presence
04:27that they are very open-minded.
04:29We have come to enjoy this story.
04:31So to say that they are not open-minded
04:36is not ethical.
04:38Their presence tells us
04:40that they have come to enjoy
04:42and to see the wider perspective of the story.
04:46Or to say that they have come
04:48with the feeling of acceptance.
04:50Now it depends on the viewers
04:52and the actors of that situation
04:54who are together with the Amritayog.
04:57If there is a very involved audience,
05:00as soon as there is an audience,
05:01they have come to get involved.
05:03But if they are not involved,
05:05then somewhere we should think as actors
05:08that we will have to make more efforts
05:12so that we can connect their Manas Patal
05:15with our Manas Patal.
05:17Or we can connect with their Manas Patal.
05:21And it is said that theatre is an actor's medium
05:24because everything is in the hands of actors.
05:27In comparison to films,
05:29where the director calls the shot,
05:31a lot of things change in the edit.
05:33In theatre, what an actor does
05:35is just for the sake of that show.
05:37In the next show,
05:38they can change it according to them.
05:40In such a situation,
05:42as you said,
05:43your DNA is of theatre.
05:45When you came back to this world
05:47and played this character,
05:49what were the things
05:50which left you pleasantly surprised
05:52about your own craft
05:53or which made you feel proud?
05:55The biggest feature of theatre
05:57is that it keeps you alert,
05:59aware and active.
06:02So, for any show like Truth of the Moment,
06:04we need to be alert, active and aware.
06:07So, it helps us to increase
06:09these three things within us.
06:11And when these three things increase,
06:13then even in our personal life,
06:15you and I become more enlightened
06:17and use our capabilities more than before.
06:21So, I feel that this thing
06:23is increased in theatre.
06:25Why?
06:26Because in that moment,
06:28when you and I take birth,
06:30we are completely alone.
06:32Similarly, when you go on the stage,
06:34if you look at Sarvatha,
06:36the dialogue written by you
06:40or the dialogue spoken by you
06:42is not just about you.
06:44It is live.
06:46So, the mistake of the other person
06:48or the cleanliness of the other person
06:50or the art of the other person
06:52is that you need to be able
06:54to respond to them.
06:56You need to be able to receive
06:58and give your return accordingly.
07:00So, I feel that this thing is magical.
07:02When these faculties of your brain
07:04open up, then you become more
07:06elevated in your personal life than before.
07:08The actors who come from the background
07:10of the theatre,
07:11they have a great control over their voice.
07:13Voice modulation,
07:14what pause to take,
07:15how much pressure to put on the word.
07:17In today's era,
07:19in today's films,
07:21do you feel that the new generation
07:23of actors concentrate less on their voice?
07:25I don't take it this way.
07:27I take it as if I am from the theatre,
07:29from the NSG.
07:31So, I started working after learning.
07:33And there are some people
07:35who learn while working.
07:37The point is,
07:39the importance of learning.
07:41That we are working after learning
07:43and there are some people
07:45who learn while working.
07:47So, the quality of learning,
07:49if it is magical,
07:51then believe me,
07:53your performance will have
07:55an impact on the audience.
07:57Because the character is of the actor
07:59until the audience has seen it.
08:01But when the audience has seen it,
08:03then the character,
08:05neither of the writer,
08:07nor of the actor,
08:09nor of the director,
08:11becomes of the audience.
08:13So, I feel,
08:15what you are saying about voice modulation,
08:17the actor tries his best.
08:19Only some people's abilities
08:21and efforts
08:23affect you.
08:25And some people's efforts and abilities
08:27don't affect you.
08:29So, you can say that
08:31today's people are not paying attention.
08:33Even though they are paying attention,
08:35it didn't affect you as an audience.
08:37So, we feel that
08:39they didn't work with full honesty.
08:41It doesn't happen like that.
08:43They work with honesty.
08:45It doesn't affect you.
08:47And when Brecht used to do his plays,
08:49he used to read his audience as well.
08:51Like you mentioned,
08:53there is an active give and take
08:55between the audience.
08:57If they felt that the emotion
08:59was not coming equally,
09:01then he used to trigger that emotion
09:03by making his theatre group sit
09:05so that the 300-350 people
09:07can go through the same emotion.
09:09So, if you notice,
09:11if the audience's door is slipping,
09:13as soon as you step on the stage,
09:15you understand
09:17the temperature, temperament
09:19of the audience.
09:21According to that,
09:23you try to fine-tune yourself
09:25without destroying
09:27or without
09:29making any kind of noise
09:31that you spoil your story,
09:33the story, the presentation.
09:35So, without spoiling,
09:37you fine-tune.
09:39And you understand that.
09:41It's not a matter of expression.
09:43It's a matter of experience.
09:45You understand that
09:47while doing it.
09:49Because it keeps going on.
09:51That's the specialty of theatre.
09:53Whether it's Brecht's theatre
09:55or Kalidas's,
09:57or Bharat Muni's
09:59plays,
10:01or whatever it is,
10:03it's a continuous process
10:05that you have to
10:07fine-tune yourself.
10:09For example, you and I
10:11are talking on the frequency.
10:13There might be news on the radio.
10:15There might be movie songs.
10:17There might be commentary.
10:19But what are we doing now?
10:21We are talking.
10:23So, it's a matter of fine-tuning.
10:25Fine-tuning.
10:27So, if our frequency matches
10:29that of the audience,
10:31then that thing starts spreading.
10:33It's the same with the audience.
10:35You have to match the frequency.
10:37And for my final question,
10:39your two characters
10:41have left a deep mark
10:43on Indian cinema.
10:45One is the character of struggle
10:47and the other is the character of the enemy.
10:49If you could share
10:51your fondest memories
10:53of those two characters.
10:55It's a long story
10:57because there are two films.
10:59We will definitely talk
11:01about the process
11:03of struggle and the enemy.
11:05On that note, thank you so much, sir.
11:07It was a pleasure and an honor
11:09having this conversation.