Face-off / Rehaan Engineer

When did he first decide to act?

quot;When I was six,quot; he says laughing and adding to quell your disbelief: quot;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.

8230;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. quot;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 it8217;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 8212; 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? What8217;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 quot;four weeks from now, if all goes wellquot;. They also plan a multimedia show 8212; quot;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 youquot;.

Does direction also feature in his scheme of things?

quot;Absolutely. Professional directors 8212; I mean people who are paid for it 8212; are invariably incompetent. It8217;s sad, especially because they have all the technical support. So often they cannot help actors, they don8217;t know what8217;s effective 8212; I can do better than they can.quot;

Does that mean today he enjoys directing more than acting?

quot;Yes. I am not just an actor, I happen to act. For me it8217;s going to be whatever it8217;s going to be.quot;

And future plans? Well, he looks at his life only three months ahead8230;

quot;8230; any further and and it begins to seem murky.quot;

Well then here8217;s a newcomer who does what he wants to.

Exactly. He isn8217;t planning years in advance and Hrithik Roshan doesn8217;t even feature on his list of worries. He does what he enjoys most at that particular moment.