Film and theatre are typically considered sister arts. While many professionals consider the latter to be much tougher because of its live nature, popular culture seems to prioritise film over theatre. Nevertheless, a theatre background is still considered important to gain expertise in film acting, direction, and other related categories, and many professionals continue to be prolific in both. Saurabh Shukla is one such personality, whose career has seen him delve into film and theatre with equal grace and capability. Ahead of his Bengaluru show of Barff on April 6 at The Prestige Centre for Performing Arts, Konanakunte, a play he has written, directed and acts in, Shukla gets a moment to reflect.
Shukla’s beginnings lay in theatre with a canonical upbringing introducing him to a range of writers from a Western playwright like Arthur Miller, to a national legend like Girish Karnad. Indebted, he says, “Miller and Indian writers like Mohan Rakesh had the maximum impact on my writing. Because of them, I developed an understanding of what I am today. Whatever I do is a result of what I read, what I did, what inspired me; and I kept following it.” Shukla has previously revealed his artistic motive to be one of capturing reality, which he deems to be challenging. Many of his performances fall in the comedy genre, including Karnad’s Hayavadana, which uses humour to deliver piercing social satire. When asked whether ‘truth-telling’ lies at the core of his vision, Shukla agrees, insofar as truth is given the leeway to be subjective. “I can’t take a flag and say that I have been searching for the truth, but I guess that is the very basic drive of a human being. We are all searching for some kind of truth – all writers do that. But I have found that there’s no universal truth. Barff is one step in that direction,” he says.
About the process of writing itself, Shukla explains, “It started like all stories, for me, start. There is some scene or situation that excites me. I say, ‘Oh, that’s an interesting situation’ and I build a story around it.” He also goes on to reveal that while writing the script, he aimed for the silver screen, and not the stage. “I’m into movies and my first instinct is to write a film. But Barff is a different kind of story, the kind which is not usually told in Indian cinema. After staging a play in Delhi, I took into account what a great platform it was for the story, and adapted it for the stage,” he says. About the importance of a thriller play in Hindi theatre, Shukla comments, “There are not many thriller plays written in Hindi. The whole Western tradition of thrillers is missing here; naturally, I was keen on doing it, and it took me almost seven years.”
Barff, a three-character play set in Kashmir, focuses on the idealogical conflicts between two characters while Shukla’s character treads the middle path of synthesis, offering, according to Shukla, the simplest response: ‘believe what you want as long it’s not harming anyone else’. Talking about the show itself, he expresses his excitement about bringing Barff to a Bengaluru audience. “I just love the audience there; Bengaluru does have a charm. It has a proper theatre audience, with the appropriate theatre etiquette. I’m quite excited,” he chirps.