Stage Act

The play,which premiered yesterday at Mumbai’s Rangsharda auditorium,had Shifaali acting alongside Kiran Karmarkar,a popular television personality and a well-known name in Marathi theatre,and theatre actors Abhir and Adir. “For me,it was like returning back to school and answering an exam,” says Shifaali. “There are no retakes,no dubbing or flashbacks to hold the audience’s concentration in theatre. Beyond the fifth row,people cannot see my face. So it is my voice that has to carry the play forward,” she says.

Although Vipul doesn’t get to do much as producer,the most difficult part was to get the dates of all artistes at the same time. But once that fell into place,things eased out. “With theatre,the focus has to be there. I did feel a big difference when I returned to the stage. As a producer,my job is limited. But when I watched them on stage,I felt the urge to act,” says the filmmaker,who was a known name in the Gujarati theatre circuit before he turned to Bollywood.

In fact,during those years,he had even approached Shifaali to work in some of his plays. “But she rejected whatever I offered her. Either she didn’t have the time or she didn’t like the roles that were offered,” he jests. “But I did regret that later,” admits his wife contritely. After all these years,it was destiny that brought them together on stage,believes Vipul. “I had to take somebody else’s work in order to cajole Shifaali into doing this play,” he smiles.