Long before she became a household name with India’s first soap opera, Hum Log, Sushma Seth was a young girl staging plays in her garden, casting her siblings, directing them, and performing for family and neighbours.
Having grown up in a joint family in the capital city, the veteran actor remembers collecting props from home, and staging small plays with the assistance of older family members. “I always loved acting and music,” Seth adds. Soon enough, the young girl’s talent was noticed—her uncle, Maheshwar Dayal, wrote two plays for her. One of them was performed on the Regal cinema’s stage.
A scholarship eventually took Seth to Briarcliffe College in New York, where she studied drama. Seth was ecstatic that the course included acting, direction, stagecraft, voice training, set and costume design. She was cast in all the important roles, was president of the student council, and crowned May Queen.
The Dean raised a scholarship for Sushma to transfer to Carnegie Mellon University, one of the top drama schools in the US, where she also performed and toured with a children’s theatre company. “After four years, I returned to India. And within a fortnight, I was offered a play,” she tells TMS. That first play was Rustom Sohrab, directed by the renowned theatre exponent Habib Tanvir.
“The production was excellent with stylised costumes, music, and powerful performances,” she says. After that, she was offered roles in plays directed by other stalwarts such as Joy Michael, Inderlal Dass, Sai Paranjpye, and Rajindernath, in English, Hindi and Urdu.
All about passion
In the ’60s, Sushma Seth and other dedicated actors went onto found Yatrik, one of the oldest English theatre groups of Delhi. “Theatre was always my passion. We were on stage every weekend performing dramatic, excellent productions, but there were hardly any audiences, and no one could afford to pay the artists,” she says. “Today some subsidised big productions can charge high ticket prices. We pooled money to mount a production and brought furniture and clothes from our homes for props and costumes.”
While the theatre scene in Bombay still garners large audiences, she points out that in Delhi, it is harder to make a living as a theatre artist.
The 89-year-old actor, however, speaks fondly of her theatre days. “To bring life to a character, hold the attention of the audience, the silence, the lights, it’s magical. Performing on stage is marvelous!” How does it compare with being on television and films? “For television and films, the response from audiences is not subjective but definitely worldwide,” she adds.
Stage to screen
With a glamorous career launched in theatre, Seth went on to make a mark in Bollywood films and iconic Indian television shows. Some of her popular films include Shyam Benegal’s Junoon (1978) and Kalyug (1981) Raj Kapoor’s Prem Rog (1982), the Sridevi-starrer Nagina (1986), Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003) by Nikkhil Advani, and many more. The actress is known for playing matriarchal roles on screen.
One of her most recognised roles was as Dadi in Hum Log. “It was about a lower middle class family–their hopes, challenges, relationships and solutions, it was their story,” Seth remarks.
Thanks to her family’s support, juggling between Delhi and Mumbai never felt like a task for Seth. “I used to take the first flight in the morning. My mother and husband supported me fully, and I was never vulnerable or insecure.”
Favourite roles
Over the years, she played various roles on stage–Katherine in Taming of the Shrew, Rano in Ek Chadar Maili Si, and Champa in Sakharam Binder. “Those were some of my favourite roles,” she proudly says.
Speaking of the current entertainment scenario, Seth highlights the impact of the OTT boom. “It’s not a passing phase. OTT is here to stay. People enjoy the convenience of watching from their homes without dealing with traffic or crowds.” According to her, even film actors and theatre artists are now “available” for OTT productions.
Seth has also directed children’s plays–with an NGO called ‘Arpana’–until the pandemic hit. Before we leave her, we return once again to her attachment for the stage and how its magic has never quite left her. “I started acting very young. It was just a joy being on stage,” she says.
Sushma Seth talks to director Sohaila Kapur about her journey as an actor on July 18, The Theatre, India Habitat Centre, 7 pm