Face-Off/Vinay Jain

Vinay Jain? Isn’t he a theatre actor?

Not just a theatre actor — he is fast becoming the theatre actor. Ram in Amir Raza Hussain’s Legend of Ram, these days he can be seen in Raell Padamsee’s Games People Play. He is also on Zee TV in a serial called Raahein.

That’s because at the moment Vinay is in America — for a month — touring with Mahatma Vs Gandhi. Where he plays a triple role. Naturally on the eve of his departure, he was nervous and excited. "I hope the play is received well."

Well, believe it or not, Vinay used to model too. He has even been on the ramp for an Ensemble show. Though that’s not something he is too proud of.

"Ramp is not my scene. I did do a few ad films aswell, only those where a certain amount of `performing’ was required." Therefore ads like Camay soap and VIP luggage made it to his portfolio.

Absolutely. Because that is far from the truth. Vinay began acting while he was still at Campion school. Theatre stalwarts like Pearl Padamsee, Vivek Vaswani and Nosherwan Jehangir used to direct their school productions and Vinay made it a point to work with them. In college, he began to assist Vaswani on two films. Patthar Ke Phool — the Sippy film that launched Raveena Tandon. And Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman starring Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla. "It was a great learning experience."

"With independent cinema opening up there are many interesting opportunities." He would like to direct films in the genre of Hyderabad Blues or Bombay Boys."I really loved Satya as well."

Vinay has already acted in such a film. He went to FTII Pune to do student films. "I had heard that Aamir Khan used to go to FTII and participate in the student films." And if one of his idols could make time for student cinema then he was sure to follow.

"It happened all of a sudden. I got a call late in the night from a friend saying that the play’s director Amir Raza Hussain wanted to meet me and I had to come right now." And that meeting lead to Vinay’s first lead.

Wasn’t that the play with the disastrous opening night? "That’s not fair. We had only rehearsed for one week and were not ready. The sponsors pushed us into an early opening. But after the play re-opened it went on to become a huge success."

"It’s a dream role to be acting with such established actors like Shefali Chayya, Achint Kaur and Lillette Dubey." He plays a young man called Govind who is caught between his lady love and the wishes of his families. "He is a complex and very real character."

Though this is Vinay’s first lead role he is no stranger to the idiot box. He previously hosted a children’s game show with Tara Deshpande.

Not really. "I am more comfortable playing a character than anchoring and being myself." It seems that Vinay would rather be someone else than himself.

"I am acting with Soni Razdan." The production is made up of two plays and Vinay is in the first play, Hello I Love You!, written by British playwright James Saunder. "It is about how difficult it is to sustain a relationship."

"Yes. Havingand keeping a relationship going is tough. Particularly today, when everyone has become so individualistic."

"Yes. I have just shot for a new TV serial which is about the newspaper business where I play a publishing tycoon." And he hopes it will be on air very soon. And then it’s back to being busy, busy, busy.