On the Road

Malhotra,Rocky S,Wendell Rodricks and Neeta Lulla. Last year,a friend put her in touch with Delhi-based theatre director Arvind Gaur and soon Pradaan left hometown Mumbai for Delhi to join Gaur’s group Asmita.

Gaur cast her in a few stage plays like Leheron ke Rajhans and Gandhi aur Ambedkar (where she played Annie Besant),after which he put her through the rigours of street theatre to get rid of her initial jitters. “Every street play begins with actors dressed in black calling out to passers-by to stop and watch the performance. I was shy and nervous,and it was a challenge for me to walk up to unknown people on the road and say,‘Aao aao natak dekho,” she recalls.

Now Pradaan is a pro,making easy eye contact with the audience and mouthing her Hinglish dialogues with greater confidence. “Street theatre teaches an actor to switch roles in a jiffy,” she says,describing the different characters she played for a play on domestic helps called Naukrani — from a villainish “agent” who supplies young village girls as maids to the city,to a young maid who gets raped by her employer to an evil memsahib . “In a street play,you cannot cheat the audience who stand at eye level with the actors. This has taught me to act with conviction,” says Pradaan,who is also a Kathak dancer and singer.

Pradaan says she has had her dark moments too. Once when a co-actor accidentally pushed Pradaan,she fell and suffered a blackout. “I hit my head and my face was swollen. It was scary because for a model,her face is her fortune,” she says.

Though Pradaan has fitted in a few shoots and ramp assignments during the past few months,her theatre commitments forced her to skip the recent Wills Lifestyle Fashion Week and other shows. “I don’t regret it since I have grown as an actor. Even after I return to Mumbai and the fashion world,I will remember my experiences in street theatre,” she says with a smile.