“It all began when I chose to be a part of a play during my graduation. Back then, it was only because a lot of my friends were a part of it. But the world of theatre is such that you can’t help but fall in love with it. I must admit that this love for the art form didn’t cultivate overnight. I continued to do a few plays in college. But I wasn’t studying arts, I was studying science. Once I began to explore theatre, I knew science wasn’t the right field for me. I discontinued and took up a job in television. It worked for a year, but I wasn’t satisfied. I kept thinking of my theatre days. That’s when things changed. I decided to do theatre full-time and even the thought of poor financial returns didn’t stop me. My parents were quite surprised – I left college, worked in Television and now, I wanted to do theatre. It took them time to understand and support me, but I had decided that theatre is the right thing for me. This was about 10 years ago, when there were lesser places like Lamakaan that allowed you to practise and perform plays. I began to read and experiment with various forms of theatre and storytelling.

A few years later, I decided to start ‘cycle naatak’ – to take theatre across the country on a one year-long tour across the country. But after a single year of travel, I fell in love with the unknown roads and the strangers I met. I carried a tent, set it up wherever I was, stopped that night and stayed there till the next day. I worked in farms and local schools to sustain myself. It was much tougher than I thought, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. So I didn’t see a reason why I shouldn’t do it. Around the same time came the idea of the Great African Caravan – a group of 12 artists from different parts of the world on a 255-day trip across 10 countries from South Africa to Egypt. Once UNESCO decided to support this, we began to move across the continent, collaborating with so many other regional artists. We belonged to different backgrounds, cultures and spoke languages. What food must be cooked was a problem for days because our eating habits were so different. But what brought all of us together was the love for theatre and storytelling. We believed that irrespective of our nationalities, the world can be one through art. That’s also the idea of my cycle naatak – to spread art across borders. This is what I want to do. It’s a lifelong journey and I don’t see an end to storytelling.”

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