Face-off / Rehaan Engineer

Did movies happen just like a dream?

"Film-making is like a continual chaos, almost a whirlwind. We did some film work at drama school. You know what it involves? Doing it for 35 days in a row is so exhausting, it is so unrewarding, I wouldn’t want to do it again. I loved the project because they were great people so it was fun being with them, but sitting around doing a 30-second shot after two hours, waiting for the set up — to me it’s ugly, nasty and wrong," says Rehaan, wondering how can actors enjoy films. "Seems to me that it’s not an actor’s medium — rather, it’s a director’s medium, an editor’s medium and a cinematographer’s, but not an actor’s.

When did he first decide to act?

"When I was six," he says laughing and adding to quell your disbelief: "No really. When I was at boarding school and I really was six.

He speaks about his debut as an actor on stage like it was something that happened just yesterday.

…the day when he was cast as a shepherd boy in the Christmas nativity play. All he had to do was kneel and stand up when Joy to the World was played. He recollects how he got on stage and was so exited to find the entire audience looking at the actors looking at him. Of course, he forgot to stand up on cue, the others did and when they found him kneeling they thought they had done it wrong so they sat down as he stood up. It was total chaos. "I ruined the whole show. I think, from then on I never really considered anything else. About two years later, I realised that people had to work to earn a living and some people acted for a living. I put the two together and here I am.

Seems like it’s been theatre all the way.

At boarding school, it was months of hard work and just one single performance. When he came to Bombay, he was involved in college theatre so much that he would enjoy working with those in their first year and putting up performances in the famous Xaviers Woods — one performance had just 12 people in the audience. Then on he has has worked with various professional theatre groups for productions like The Glass Menagerie, A Small Family Business. At the drama school there were many more.

And now? What’s up his sleeve?

He, along with friend Pushant Kriplani, have formed the Industrial Theatre Company in the optimistic belief that they will be able to get a whole lot of productions going and therefore become a kind of a theatre industry. Currently, they are planning a performance of the Agamemnon at the Sakshi Art Gallery "four weeks from now, if all goes well". They also plan a multimedia show — "we perform the play with previously shot bits, production and live stuff just like Greek theatre, with its dance, movement, action, speech, song. It all speaks to you".

Does direction also feature in his scheme of things?

"Absolutely. Professional directors — I mean people who are paid for it — are invariably incompetent. It’s sad, especially because they have all the technical support. So often they cannot help actors, they don’t know what’s effective — I can do better than they can."

Does that mean today he enjoys directing more than acting?

"Yes. I am not just an actor, I happen to act. For me it’s going to be whatever it’s going to be."

And future plans? Well, he looks at his life only three months ahead…

"… any further and and it begins to seem murky."

Well then here’s a newcomer who does what he wants to.

Exactly. He isn’t planning years in advance and Hrithik Roshan doesn’t even feature on his list of worries. He does what he enjoys most at that particular moment.