'Satyadev Dubey wanted us to soak in the character, become it’

Senior actress Sulabha Deshpande, who knew Satyadev Dubey for many decades, goes down memory lane with Yogesh Pawar

When did you first meet Satyadev Dubey?
I first met him in 1964 when he cast me as Gandhari at short four-day notice in his play at Kolkata’s Nandikar festival. After an actress dropped out, he called litterateur PL Deshpande in crisis mode. Deshpande suggested my name, saying only she will be able to deliver. Satyadev was iffy until Pu La told him of my play Ek Hoti Rani that he had watched. He said ‘yes’. I was unsure as my son had fever, but my late husband Arvind said I must do it. Imagine I’d come so close to almost not knowing him.

You were a regular in many of his plays..
In those days, Hindi theatre was scant while Marathi theatre drew huge audience. Satyadev, who had a lot of respect for this tradition of Marathi theatre, would interact with all of us very closely. He knew my potential and I feel privileged to have worked with him.

Some people who worked with him speak of a volatile exacting temperament. Did you encounter it ever?
See his method and approach was very, very different. We would just be reading our lines and learning them for nearly a fortnight and more. He would keep shouting, ‘Read! Read!!’ (Laughs) He wanted everyone to soak in the character, become it. ‘Once you do that,’ he would say, ‘you will be able to decide how she sits, moves, looks and everything else.’

Many speak of how he provoked actors. Is this true?
Because he was so unpredictable, you never knew what to expect of Satyadev. I remember Bhumika was being cast. I hadn’t met Smita (Patil) and when I was told the role was of her mother, I assumed it’ll be like full interview or getting to say some line or something. He just looked at me and said, ‘Theek hai’ and indicated I leave. I asked him if this meant I wasn’t getting the role. He just stared at me and said, ‘Of course, you are! I just wanted to see if your hairline matches Smita’s.’

Any special memories of his acclaimed Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe?
(Laughs) When I was told they wanted me for the role, I laughed and told them: ‘Take a good-looking heroine and make her do it’. But they insisted, and I was told they’d either do the film with me or drop it totally. I remember there was a bedroom scene which I was hyper about. I said I won’t allow my pallu to even shift on my shoulder and pinned it with a safety pin. Later, I didn’t even realise it was a scene like that as the camera just had close-ups of our faces and hands clasped. Yet the lighting and camera angle was such that it conveyed a lot. We have to thank Govind Nihalani who was the cinematographer.

You got your first chance at direction thanks to him?
Yes, he wanted to do Sakharam Binder in Gujarati and I was arguing how he was getting the nuance of Laxmi’s character wrong. Suddenly he said, ‘Why don’t you direct?’ I was hesitant but he insisted. Then, I not only directed and wrote the screenplay for the first time but also played Laxmi.