Budding actors get celebrity support

It is her commitment to children and her love for theatre as a medium that has brought her to the city despite her hectic shooting schedules. She explains: quot;When an adult enrolls in an art-and-theatre class, he has preconceived notions about the medium he has chosen. With formed opinions and impressions he is affected by what he sees around him, and as a result his work tends to be an imitation. In contrast, children come with an open mind; they are as original as they can get and a joy to work with. With their nimble fingers and unleashed imagination, they set their work on fire.8221;

A couple hours after she got off the Shatabdi today she was getting her young pupils loosen up and ready to experiment. Her workshop is highly flexible which may culminate in a play or production 8230; quot;probably on the school or classroom situationquot;. She describes it as quot;a celebration of being alive and being a child wholistically.quot;

Vani made her debut in Hindi films with Dushman in which she plays the anti-hero8217;s girl, Sunanda, but earlier she acted in an Italian film, Omero, directed by Fabio Carpi, which featured at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997. quot;Working in films is fine,quot; she says, quot;but it8217;s theatre which keeps you alive as an actor.quot; Her idol? quot;Naseeruddin Shah 8230; he keeps in touch with theatre and works on at least two theatre productions every year.quot;

Vani feels she has to be channelised to perform. The industry, according to her is quot;in an interesting phase and newcomers like me and others from the NSD are getting plenty of opportunity to perform.quot;

Vani got her introduction to the stage when she was eight. She has so far acted in ten plays, both western and Indian, and given a solo performance at Bombay8217;s Prithvi Theatre. She counts her role in the ancient Greek tragedy Electra as quot;my very best to date; that part got under my skin and stayed there for a good six months. Believe in what you are doing and it will have an impact on your character.quot; Vani finds Aamir Khan, a complete actor since quot;he really works on his characterquot;. Smita Patil is her all-time favourite actress. As for Madhuri Dixit 8230; quot;terrificquot;; Sri Devi 8230; quot;a great actressquot; and Juhi 8230; lively and naturalquot;. Among theatre personalities, she praises Aashish Vidyarthi and Manoj Bajpai. On the difference between film and theatre actors, she feels that theatre provides quot;a slower climb but it is more solid. The theatre actor matures over time and is unlikely to have his head turned by glamour. I certainly wouldn8217;t want the glamour-doll image.quot;

Her future projects include the NFDC production, Disha, in which she is working with Zora Sehgal and Zakir Hussain. Having worked with well known directors and writers, she is also got down to writing concepts for films and teleserials.