The progress of an actor

Designed as a black-box performance, ‘Madbeth’ is a devised theatre piece, inspired by Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’. In this version, the classic tragedy ends up being a rib-tickler. “This is my attempt to make the classic accessible and contemporary. Initially, it was a 30-minute show as part of my Master in Fine Arts (MFA) thesis and was performed in December 2009. I kept adding things to it and now it is 75-minute long,” says the actor.

While Indian audience can be painfully unresponsive at times, Tillu says he applies some basic techniques to involve them in the show. These techniques come from his intensive training in physical comedy. He did his MFA from the National School of Dramatic Arts, Stockholm, with a specialisation in physical comedy. He is also trained in clowning with Clowns Without Borders, Sweden.

Born in Mumbai’s Girgaum to former mill workers, Tillu’s journey to Sweden and theatre experience sound like a dream. “My parents worked in Swastik Oil Mill, and during the ’80s strike, they lost their jobs. In spite of that, my father, who indulged in amateur theatre, never lost his interest in it,” says Tillu. Even though he was part of school and college productions, his professional training started when he joined Alok Ulfat’s theatre group, Avikal. He did theatre with them for nearly four years and simultaneously worked with his elder brother, Rahul, who provided logistical support to shipping companies. It is at Avikal that he met filmmaker, Anand Gandhi and acted in three plays that the latter wrote. He later played Ajay, Sohum Shah’s Sweden-based friend, in Gandhi’s ‘Ship of Theseus’ (2013).

In 2003, he met famous theatre artiste Kefas Berlin who had brought in school children from Sweden. This meeting served as a catalyst. He quit his brother’s business to move to Sweden to study theatre in 2004. Though, initially, he was supposed to be there only for a month, Tillu spent nine years. This proved to be the most eventful period of his career, during which he travelled with Clown Without Borders to Moldova, Palestine, Israel and Egypt. He also met musician Emma Gilljam, whom he later married and now has a 20-month-old daughter with. In September 2012, he formed Theatreact, with which he has created plays such as ‘Ragulabuggla’, ‘Boomerang’ and ‘Hamlet Incognito’.

Earlier this year, Tillu decided to return to India to try his hands at movies — as an actor and a filmmaker. He made his direction debut with a documentary feature on Theyyam dancers, ‘The Living Gods’, co-produced by the Swedish National Television, which premiered at Art FIFA, Montreal, in March 2014. “I have also directed and written two shorts. While one is in English, the other is non-verbal,” he says. In India, he is also working with young actors. “I am trying to create work with new people. That apart, for CentreStage festival at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), I have proposed a non-verbal dark comedy, which will be a devised piece about two brothers stuck in a limbo, waiting for the right phone call,” he says.

After the Kamshet show, Tillu performed at Prithvi Theatre to packed houses. On July 4, he will be making the audience at Experimental Theatre, NCPA, shed their inhibition and be part of ‘Madbeth’. When he performs there on Friday, his mother will watch Madbeth for the first time. His parents never missed his plays in school and college. However, since his theatre idiom has undergone a vast change since then, Tillu is curious to know how his mother would react to such a piece.