Back to school

 Actor Sachn Khedekar had to take two-hour lessons daily to brush up his language skills before taking the stage for his new play.

Known for his serious personality on the screen and off, it is rare to hear actor Sachin Khedekar break out into a resounding laughter. And very candidly, he admits that his short yet satisfying stint on the Gujarati theatre stage has been an “adventure”. The actor whose second Gujarati play Kanjee Viruddha Kanjee is going houseful in the city, nonchalantly insists, “I speak Gujarati, but it is an utmost effort on my part.”

However, director and friend Umesh Shukla was so stuck on asking Sachin to fill in the shoes of the protagonist that he even made sure he took daily tuitions for two hours to brush up his language skills.

The actor says, “I stay in Vile Parle, so I am surrounded by Gujarati neighbours. Even my wife is Gujarati. I can manage to speak in Gujarati somehow, but it is not enough for the stage. I had to rehearse the play for six weeks and everyday I was made to take Gujarati lessons.” After taking rigorous lessons from the assistant director of the production Kunal Pandit, Sachin finally took the stage to play the character of an atheist who sues God in the court of law.

Sachin has no qualms in accepting that he is aching to break the “serious stereotype” that the big screen has created around him. He says, “Playing Kangee in Shukla’s play was a welcome change and finally I could break free of the clichéd image.”

Returning to the Gujarati stage after 15 years, Sachin feels that it is high time the Gujarati theatre audience becomes discerning, given the fact that they are “fed on the same diet across every play.” The actor explains, “Unlike Marathi theatre that has a very strong experimental background, Gujarati theatre is a commercially oriented economy catering to the ‘noisy’ audience.”

The story of his controversial character on stage does not go down very well with the audience, Sachin admits, adding that a lot of questions arise in the minds of the viewers. He says, “When I am on the stage performing, I can feel the shock on their faces. They do not believe anything that I speak on the stage. But the fact that they stay on till the end just proves that the Gujarati theatre audience is gradually getting discerning.”