Kulbhushan Kharbanda made a comeback to theatre last year after a hiatus. The actor tells Divya Kaushik that he was too lazy to form his own group in Mumbai and to earn money he moved to films
last year he made a comeback to theatre after a hiatus of over 20 years. For someone who started his career with theatre, forming a group with college friends, the gap, we wonder, must have been a painful one. “Not really,” replied Kulbhushan Kharbanda, “I think the gap was there because I felt too lazy, during that time everyone was forming a theatre group and I was not in a mood to arrange everything and form a group. It is true that I enjoy theatre and whatever I am today is because of theatre, but forming a group was not on my mind. I was closely associated with the group Abhiyaan, with my other college friends. I then joined Delhi-based Yatrik, a bilingual theatre repertory by director Joy Michael. I then moved to Kolkata and started doing theatre with the group Padatik under director Shyamanand Jalanin. I then moved to Mumbai and realised that this city is not a place where people would come asking, ‘Kulbhushan would you do a playIJ’ And then money only came from films, so I took the gap. last year, Padatik approached me for the play Atmakatha and I agreed.”
The actor will be in Delhi today and will rehearse for a day to present Atmakatha at the Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, tomorrow and day after. The play, directed by Vinay Sharma, is about a writer, Rajadhyaksha, penning his autobiography and he discovers how his relationship with three women in his life, his wife, sister-in-law and a scribe, has evolved over the years. The writer and his wife Uttara separated 30 years earlier because of a brief relationship between Rajadhyaksha and Uttara’s sister Vasanti. Rajadhyaksha published a novel depicting these events, where Uttara/Vasanti become the semi-fictional Urmila/Vasudha. The book makes their relationships a source of gossip.
Uttara and Vasanti have since reconciled but one day the past resurfaces. As the four characters look at their own lives, different versions of the truth emerge revealing all of them trapped in their own cycle of torment. “I have always believed that though theatre is a medium of entertainment, it should deal with thought-provoking subjects. If someone only wants comedy then why would he sit in a theatre, he would better go and watch a Govinda film,” said the actor who was a part of films like Manthan, Ek Chadar Maili Si and Arth. later he moved to do more commercial films like Gupt, Border, Refugee and Yes Boss. Kharbanda says that he has never been particular about the movies he chose. “I think I was never in a position to choose, rather the scripts chose me. At the time when I was doing what you call a parallel cinema actors were only offered the roles. After spending some time in the industry I opted for different films because one needs to keep doing something to earn money. I then met with an accident and was bedridden for few years. When you are out of circle, the work also stops coming. I have started moving now and have about three to four projects. But they are not worth mentioning. A film becomes worth mentioning only when the audience have approved of it,” he concluded.