No cuts and retakes! This is the difference between acting in movies and performing live on the stage. A platform for upcoming talent, theatre will always be one of the ways of contributing to art. Undoubtedly, Bollywood industry should pay its gratitude to theatre for the plethora of talented artists it has gifted to the film industry. Artists like Kalki Koechlin, Naseeruddin Shah, Irrfan Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Manoj Bajpai, Radhika Apte, Nawazuddin Siddiqui among many others have not only contributed to quality standards in Bollywood , but have also made the Indian film fraternity proud. Here are few artists and their journey from stage to screen.
Kalki Koechlin
The Indian-born French actress is of the view: “Theatre is one of the mediums which will always exist, but just on the fringes. Theatre is great way to put political and social expressions. That why it will never die and I don’t think any new medium will be a threat to theatre.” Kalki is sure that she will always in love with theatre. Kalki has acted, co-written and directed plays including Trivial Disasters, The Real Inspector Hound, Hair, Hamlet the Clown Prince among others. A National Film Award winner for Margarita with a Straw, Koechlin was conferred with the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture for her contributions to cinema. She has also been recipient of a Filmfare and two Screen Awards as well.
Manoj Bajpayee
“Performing street plays was like an adventure”, says the Gangs of Wasseypur actor Manoj Bajpayee. The Padma Shri awardee, credits his decade-long theatre experience for all the good he has achieved. The critically-acclaimed actor says, “Most of the work I did on the stage can be bracketed in the experimental zone. These plays were written by the literary greats and we would have massive discussions about the characters and the motivations behind their actions. When you get used to that kind of preparation, you are ready to take the plunge into any kind of complicated mind that you get to portray in cinema.” He has also been awarded with National Film Award for Pinjar.
Naseeruddin Shah
One of the most revered actors in the country, Naseeruddin Shah is most remembered for his roles in films like A Wednesday and Sarfarosh among others. Naseeruddin also is a prominent figure in Indian parallel cinema. He is a two-time National Film Award winner for Paar and Sparsh.
Rajkummar Rao
The new age actor and loved by all, Rajkummar Rao did theatre with Kshitij Repertory and Shri Ram Centre in Delhi. Rao is the recipient of several awards, including a National Film Award for Shahid, three Filmfare Awards, and an Asia Pacific Screen Award. Raj Kumar Rao is known for films like CityLights, Bareilly Ki Barfi and Stree among others.
Irrfan khan
The quality actor credited theatre for putting him onto a path of self discovery. He is acclaimed for his work predominantly in Hindi cinema, and also in British films and Hollywood, Irrfan Khan has a film career with a span of almost thirty years. He has featured in over fifty domestic films. He is also a National Award winner for the film Paan Singh Tomar.