In Rathna Shekar’s words
How they met
When I came back from New York to Hyderabad after completing a course at Lee Strasburg, it was with the intention of doing theatre full time. Before I formed a group, I announced a play, spread the word in circles, posted an ad for auditions and got a bunch of people together. Anjali, a first year mass communication student at that time came to the venue by chance – not for the auditions but in place of her sister who she was initially going to accompany to the workshop. And that’s how we met.
All in a daze
It’s funny, but we have so many common friends and factors where we could have met much earlier but that never happened. Instead we met like this, working together on something we love – we both share the same passion – theatre. In the following year, we worked hard on a play where she did both music and a dance recital and I directed and acted in it. We were not even friends then, just hanging out with the rest of the actors and other theatre professionals (now academics) and discussing books, music, theatre, movies, writing -- just about anything under the Sun. She’s a little younger than me so I never even looked at her with a romantic eye. After we wrapped 50 shows of that play up, she came with a concept for another play – a solo that I was to perform. As we worked on that play, we started to hang out with a couple of friends, going to concerts and then newly opened eateries because of a mutual love of both music and food. At that point, these other friends were all starting to move for jobs or get married or both and at some point, we ended up being with each other on a lot of occasions – going around, just both of us watching plays, movies, hanging out. I don’t even remember if anything was said or we just realised through the journey that we were meant to be.
Balance Struck!
We knew there would be slight objections from both sides of the family but neither were we thinking of marriage immediately (she was in college still) nor are we people who actually worry about what people say or think. But to our surprise, everyone just accepted it graciously, with the hint that of course you both belong together. I think we balance each others’ madness nicely and those who know us well can see that immediately.
I’m quieter and what she calls broody but with her, I’m a regular standup guy. She’s moody and vivacious and witty (and a professional standup comic) but with me, she can get real and calm down for a minute and talk about what really matters. It’s been almost a decade since we met each other and have seen ups and downs in our respective lives and watched each other grow as people.
Because...
We share similar tastes and values, but we come from the exact opposite backgrounds and are very different, highly individualistic people. I come from a farming family in Alwal, and have spent my childhood and college years studying and farming with my family. She comes from the centre of the city and belongs to a family of writers and directors and spent her formative years assisting in films and documentaries. But the important thing is we both worked with our families and so we share a similar work ethic. That’s why we are able to work together so well. We co-founded Samahaara and that has been an incredible journey in itself.
Working for their baby
Samahaara started out with two people and a dream and a shared passion for original and bold theatre. Now we have more than 300 actors in the group, all of whom have worked with us over the years as actors, directors, writers, backstage crew and participants of our workshops. We work and stay in touch like an extended family and I would not have been able to achieve this alone.
As we are both creative people, we understand each other’s careers, work, ups and downs perfectly. People wonder if there are issues when two highly artistic people get together – clash of egos or a battle of wits – but it is the opposite, it is a respect for what we do. When my movie won the National Award, no one celebrated it more than her and when her play, Purushotham, He, the Victim of Spiders and Pressure Cookers is now being taught at Rutgers (state university or New Jersey), I’m extremely proud of her. I give her her space when she is writing and she understands when I’m working continuously for weeks on end, shooting and rehearsing simultaneously without a break.
Crossing the bumpy road
Initially we would fight about things, especially work, but now we are like best friends - we know the end of the fight already and what each other is trying to say. We end up getting the point across and sometimes laughing it off. It’s a stimulating, creative and challenging relationship, as she keeps me updated on everything and I keep her multi-tasking brain on track. Otherwise she will end up doing 40 things at once. So far, it’s been a period of my life I cannot imagine what it would have been without her -- because together we make good times better and bad times tolerable. If I reflect on the time that has passed, it seems unbelievable as it feels like it just started.
