Rajendra Gupta Actor / Director [Hindi Theatre ] 1. Which is the last best play you saw and why? Very recently I saw Ranjit Kapoor�s production titled HUM RAHE NA HUM at NCPA. I quite liked the play for the way in which Ranjit has adapted it from its English original, TIME AND THE CONWAYS. But then Ranjit is a master at that. Although the energy was very low-keyed in the beginning, the play slowly picked up. Around two years back I also remember seeing a Ratan Thiyyam production called RITU SANVHAR which was very good. 2. Your favourite adda to see a play� Undoubtedly Prithvi. It is a great experience to be there. The space is just perfect and I am sure there are many theatre people who secretly wish for more spaces like Prithvi. The intimacy that one can have with the audience there is difficult to find elsewhere. 3. Your favourite playwright� Haven�t read too many plays but can speak of those whose plays I have directed and acted in. Surendra Verma, Vijay Tendulkar, Mohan Rakesh are some of them whose work I have enjoyed putting on stage. Then there is this playwright called Mahendra Bhalla whose plays I am hoping to do at some point in time. 4. A classical play that you should have read� Again I want to direct as and when possible a Greek tragedy and one of Shakespeare�s plays. 5. Can you think of a foreign production you found remarkable? Why? I saw MEASURE FOR MEASURE, a UK based production that had been invited to last year�s Prithvi festival. I was overwhelmed by the technology used in it and wondered if it was necessary. Theatre to me above all is an actor�s medium. The play felt like a museum piece since by Indian standards its production value is too high to be afforded. 6. A significant Indian production that you have witnessed� A few years back I saw AUR KITNE TUKDE, a play on partition. It was performed by a Delhi based group. I found the production to be very interesting. The group was even invited to perform in Pakistan. 7. How do you regard the Mumbai Theatre scene? To be frank I am quite disappointed by the work done by established Hindi theatre groups go who perform at places like Prithvi regularly. Hindi theatre needs to reinvent itself. The reason one does theatre is also because through it you can experiment with new ideas and forms. Commercial Hindi cinema does not give you that opportunity. Hence it saddens me to find established groups doing the same old plays which have lost meaning now. I saw two Marathi plays recently- FINAL DRAFT and MITRA and enjoyed both of them. I somehow don�t see that spirit in Hindi theatre these days. But of course I need to watch plays like GARAM KAMRA and COTTON 56, POLYESTER 84 which I am told are good.   Tell us what you think of this Theatre Speak More Speaks Aakanksha Gade Abhishek Pattnaik Adhaar Khurana Adhir Bhat Theatre Speak Aish Pandit Theatre Speak Ajitesh Gupta Akanksha Gupta Akarsh Khurana Akriti Singh Akshat Nigam Akshay Shimpi Aman Gupta Aman Gupta Theatre Speak Amit Behl Amol Parashar Anand Tiwari Ankit Soni Anubha Fatehpuria Apara Mehta Archana Patel Nandi Arghya Lahiri Arnesh Ghose Arun Kakade Aseem Hattangady Ashish Saleem Ashutosh Potdar Ashwin Gidwani Asif Ali Beg Atul Kumar Atul Satya Koushik Azaad Bhakti Rathod Bhushan Korgaonkar Bijon Mondal Boman Irani Brajesh Hirjeev Chaitanya Tamhane Charudatta Bhagwat Chirag Vohra Theatre Speak Chitralekha Rathod Chitransh Pawar Cyrus Dastoor Damini Kanwal Danesh Irani Darrshan Jariwalla Debobrata Banerjee Deepika Deshpande Amin Deesh Mariwala Delna Patel Devika Shahani Punjabi Dhanendra Kawade Theatre Speak Dharmendra Gohil Dhruv Lohumi Dilnaz Irani Dinesh Thakur Dinyar Tirandas Divya Jagdale Divya Palat Dolly Thakore Faezeh Jalali Theatre Speak Gaurav Singh Geeta Manek Theatre Speak Gurleen Judge Hardik Sangani Harsh Desai Harshal Singh Hidayat Ali Sami Hilda David Himanshu Singh Howard Rosemeyer Hridaynath Jadhav Hussaini Dawawala Huzan Wadia Imran Rasheed Inaayat Ali Sami Ira Dubey Ishitta Arun Jagdish Rajpurohit Jaimini Pathak Jaimini Pathak1 Jameel Khan Janak Toprani Jasvinder Singh Jayati Bhatia Theatre Speak Jaydeep Apte Jim Sarbh Joy Fernandes Joy Sengupta Jyoti Vyas Kajal Gadhia Kamlesh Mota Kamlesh Oza Karthik T M Ketan Karande Khanjan Thumber Kulvinder Bhakshish Kumud Mishra Kyla D'Souza L J Mehta Theatre Speak Lillete Dubey Lubna Salim Maanvi Gagroo Mahabano Mody Kotwal Manali Kale Manasi Prabhakar Joshi Manaswini Lata Ravindra Mandar Chandwadkar Maneesh Verma Manish Gandhi Mansi Multani MD Pallavi Meena Vaibhav Theatre Speak Meenal Patel Meher Acharia Dar Meherzad Patel Mikhail Sen Mohit Agarwal Mohit Sharma Mujeeb Khan Nageen Tanvir Nagesh Bhosale Naman Mukherji Namit Das Namrata Pathak Theatre Speak Naseeruddin Shah Naushil Mehta Naushil Mehta (Part II) Nazneen Madan Neelam Gheewala Neha Singh Nipun Dharmadhikari Nivedita Baunthiyal Om Katare Omkar Bhatkar Padma Damodaran Parag Dubey Paromita Chatterjee Pathy Aiyar Pradnya Shastri Prajakt Deshmukh Pramod Pathak Pranati Prakash Rai Pranay Gupta & Sohini Gupta Pratik Gandhi Pratik Kothari Pratima Kulkarni Preeta Mathur Pritesh Sodha Priyanshu Painyuli Quasar Thakore Padamsee Radha Bhardwaj Rahul Antani Rahul Valmiki Raj Yadav Rajeev Ravindranathan Rajendra Gupta Rajit Kapoor. Rajit Kapur Rajiv Krishnan. Rajshri Ponappa Theatre Speak Rakesh Sharma Ramu Ramanathan Rasika Agashe Ravish Rathi Revaa Rach Rohini Bhatia Singh Rohit Tiwari Rupak Batish Sahil Jaffrey Saif Hyder Hasan Saleem Shah Theatre Speak Sameer Khandekar Theatre Speak Sananda Mukhopadhyaya Sandesh Kulkarni Sanjaay Khapare Sanket Angane Sapan Saran Satchit Puranik Satyajit Sharma Saurabh Shukla Sayeed Alam Scherazade Kaikobad Sejal Pondaa Shadab Kamal Shailesh Gelani Shaili Sathyu Theatre Speak Shamath Majumdar Sharmila Velaskar Kadne Shernaz Patel Shiv Subrahmanyam Shiv Tandan Shivam Sharma Shivani Tanksale Shubhrajyoti Barat Shyam Bhimsaria Shyam Kishore Siddharth Kumar Siddharth Menon Sneh Sapru SONAL MATHUR Theatre Speaks Suchitra Pillai Sudeep Modak Suhaas Ahuja Sukant Goel Sumit Kaul Sunil Prem Vyas Sunil Shanbag Suruchi Aulakh Sushama Deshpande Tasneem Fatehi Tavish Tom Alter Trishla Patel Tushar Pandey Tusharika Rajguru Ulhas Shirke Utkarsh Mazumdar Vaibhav Kapatia Vandana Sajnani Veena Bakshi Vidyagouri Honnavar Vikram Kapadia Vikram Kapadia (II) Vikrant Dhote Vinay Varma Vipul Mahagaonkar Vivek Madan Vivek Tandon Zubin Driver

Schedule Theatre Workshops Register a workshop | View all workshops

List Your Play

Get theatre updates in your inbox
subscribe to Mumbai Theatre Guide weekly updates