BENGALURU: Not many 22-year-olds can say they have found what they would love to do for the rest of their life. But Darsheel Safary is not one of them. After his performance in Taare Zameen Par, which received critical acclaim, it comes as no surprise that the mass media graduate has found his calling in “being part of a good story”. School, he says, was a blur from fourth to tenth standard and it wasn’t until he was in college that he got exposed to theatre. “I tried my hand at it and enjoyed it. In my second year, I got a call to be a part of a play at NCPA, Mumbai, and from there on, it was a transformation process. I realised it’s not about whether it’s theatre, TV or movies, you have to be a part of a good concept,” says Safary, who is playing a role in Two Adorable Losers, which will be staged in Bengaluru this weekend.
Besides being a fun experience, theatre also helped Safary gain confidence as an actor and a person. “The first play I did was about coming to terms with a tragedy. My second was about having an inferiority complex and how the solution is communication and self-awareness. When you are involved in theatre, you live the character. Whatever you portray in a character, in a positive light, somehow gets infused in your personality,” he says.
In the upcoming play, Safary plays a student weak in statistics, who forms an alliance with a professor from Odisha, who is weak in English. He watched the play four times before he became a part of it. “I forced my friends to also watch it more than once,” he laughs, adding, “Everything is presented in a light-hearted manner. And it’s all genuine, so I was happy to be a part of it.”
Safary has also been part of the productions, Kaise Karenge, and Can I Help You. Ask him what draws him most towards a role and he promptly says, “It’s the story. I try to read it as an audience member. If I enjoy myself, I’ll be a part of it irrespective of what the role is. Catching a project based on how big your role is prompts you to make dumb choices.”
Two Adorable Losers has completed 100 shows across India, Oman and Kuwait, and its 102nd show is coming to Bengaluru. Of all the shows, some moments stand out most for Safary. The team once gave a performance for 1,000-odd students in Kolkata, who gave them a standing ovation. “I was almost in tears because I was so overwhelmed. It made me realise this is what I was meant to do; to bring joy to an audience,” he says.
But it was only after the second or third show of Kaise Karenge or the 50th show of Two Adorable Losers that Safary saw a change is his acting skills. “It’s subtle moments like when I deliver a punchline well and I get the desired response from the audience,” he explains, adding that the scope to improve will always exist. “Even if I do a 1,000 shows, I still want to learn from the 1,001st show.”
Two Adorable Losers will be staged on October 13 at Chowdiah Memorial Hall at 6.30pm.