Rupesh Tillu who played the character of Ajay in the film Ship Of Theseus was driving a car in Stockholm. In front of him, in another car, kneeling from an open luggage boot was the director of photography Pankaj Kumar holding the camera while his gaffer Nuthan held his waist to balance the camera.
“Traffic rules are strict in Sweden,” says Rupesh, an Indian artiste who lives in the Swedish capital. “What Pankaj was doing would never be allowed,” he says. Not surprisingly then, a police car arrived soon. Rupesh called his friend, Deepal Doshi, who was driving the offending car and said, “We are screwed. We should never have tried to do things Mumbai-style. I am sure they will fine us 5000 krona (`48,000).” But Rupesh was in for a surprise. The cops soon realised that it was a film shoot and went away. “That was an amazing moment,” says Rupesh.
Rupesh bagged a role in the Ship of Thesus because director Anand Gandhi had been his friend since college. “In the script, the buyer of a kidney had to be from Europe,” says Rupesh. “But since Anand knew I lived in Stockholm, he decided to set the foreign scenes there and gave me a role.”
Though it is not films, but theatre which was Rupesh’s first love. Right from his days at the KG Somaiyya College of Arts and Commerce at Mumbai, he acted in plays. In his last year, Rupesh joined the ‘Avikal Theatre Company’. He realised theatre was his calling when he saw a performance by the Swedish group, ‘Theatre Slava’, in Mumbai.
“It was physical theatre,” says Rupesh. “There was singing and dancing. I realised that this is something I want to do.”
Through the help of one of the Slava actors, Kefas Berlin, Rupesh got admission into an acting school, Vårdinge By Folkhögskola, 60km from Stockholm. In September 2005, Rupesh left for Sweden. He studied there for a year and was hired by one of Slava’s former directors, Erik Norlin, to act in his international drama troupe, Urban Company. Soon Rupesh was travelling all over Europe performing in plays.
In 2007, Rupesh came to Kerala to make a film on Theyyam, one of Kerala’s traditional ritual worship forms. “It will be aired soon on Swedish TV,” says Rupesh. He has also performed with Clowns Without Borders in Moldova, Palestine, Israel, India, Jordan and Egypt.
And then there was a happy story unfolding in his personal life as well. He fell in love with a Swedish classical pianist, Emma Gilljam, and married her on March 24, 2012. With Emma’s help, he started his own theatre company called Theatreact. And they soon tasted success. Rupesh’s 60-minute play, Ragulabuggla, on climate change, won the outstanding artiste award in the Stockholm Fringe Festival in 2012. “It was a thrilling moment,” he says. “There were 400 artistes participating from all over the world.” Thanks to that win, they were selected to perform at the Prague Fringe Festival in May, this year, where they won the Special Jury Award.
Commenting on the difference between art in Europe and India, Rupesh says, “In Europe, it is not about pleasing the audience, but raising questions. That perspective has been missing in India. But things are changing. The best example is Ship of Theseus which asked a lot of questions,” he points out.
Rupesh is moving back to Mumbai in December with his wife and daughter and is visibly excited about it. “I have been fortunate to get all this education and experience,” he says. “Now, I want to contribute to the art scene in India,” he says.