I like being spontaneous; Nandita Das

Firstly, Between The Lines will mark your debut as a theatre director, something that you might already be familiar with considering you’ve already directed a film. How different are the mediums and how interesting was it to direct for the first time, direct your husband and direct yourself?

Theatre and film are very different mediums, and I realised this more and more after going through the writing and direction process. It is both challenging and exciting to explore a medium that is comparatively new for me. And then I am wearing so many different hats: I have to focus on Subodh’s performance, my own, as well as be the third eye as the director. I’ve always enjoyed doing new things without the fear of failure. For instance, when I directed Firaaq, I didn’t have any formal training in film direction or hadn’t assisted anybody. It was all quite new, but I learnt a lot in the process. Similarly I am learning a lot through this journey as well. But I tend to focus less on my own performance, in the interest of the overall production, but I am hoping that my acting instincts will take care of me! Subodh has always been good with narrating stories and has a natural flair for acting. People don’t inhibit him and I knew he would be confident even in his new role. I have seen him grow through the rehearsals and now as we perform in different parts of the country. Of course there are challenges of life and work overlapping so closely, but like the case in the play, this experience has also thrown up a lot of stuff in our lives. I think the more we know each other, the more honest the relationship becomes. So it’s all good!

Secondly, you (and Subodh) play a couple on stage and are a real-life couple too, were there situations of similarities between the worlds that cropped up?

As a real life couple it has been both easy and difficult to work together on such a subject. Many of our own conversations, discussions are part of the script and all that made it interesting to work on in the play. At the same time we are both very strong-minded and also related to each other in many different ways, during this process. The husband-wife, actor-actor and then actor-director, producer-director equations all overlap at times. The play does deal with marriage, working woman’s dilemma, our respective conditioning etc., so it is bound to have slices of our and other people that we know, their lives as well.

And finally, we don’t see you in Bangalore that often, but do you have any connections to this city and are you a regular visitor? What kind of responses are you hoping for from the city’s audience?

I have always liked going to Bangalore. The people are gentler and more engaged than many other parts of the country. It is sad that the beautiful trees are being cut and the wide big roads are getting so congested, but the city is still charming and I am always happy to get opportunities to go there. Yes, my travel to the city has decreased, but then after becoming a mother my over all travel has decreased! So far the response has been overwhelming and very encouraging. The commonality has been that people tend to discuss the play and what it says, way after watching it, and for me that is what I wanted. Considering it is the first time I am writing and directing a play and my husband is acting and producing it, there is a lot that we are learning and discovering. We were not sure if this experiment will work, but the audience response has given us more strength and confidence, with every show. It has not been too different in the different cities, as the human emotions and the dynamics of relationships are universal. So I am hoping the discerning audience of Bangalore will be no different and hopefully we will not disappoint them.