Mumbai — the city of Bollywood stars — has attracted actors and filmmakers through ages. Most of the industry aspirants land up in Andheri to try their luck. Some eventually break through the grid and make it big with stardom but most of them wait for that one lucky break. Arnesh Ghose, a young playwright and director at Mirror Merhcants has been an ‘insider’ for six years. His new play Andheri, a dark comedy, is exploring the different kind of people who want to become the next big thing of Bollywood. “There is so much to talk about — the casting couch, the fitness freaks, the actors who take up theatre as a stepping stone to cinema and so on,” he says.
Arnesh’s idea for a play on the “strugglers” came from the realisation that there has been no play around them. “I obviously wanted to do it from a very objective perspective because the people who are a part of the industry are like that — extremely unaffected and strong because if they start getting affected, they will not be able to survive this thousand headed industry,” he adds.
It is not just the new comers, but even the well-established stars who work hard everyday, could also be looked as strugglers, says Manav Kaul, one of the most prominent figures in the Hindi theatre circuit in the country. “There is nothing wrong in aspiring. But the important thing is to keep enjoying what one is doing,” Manav points out.
Speaking of his own days of uncertainty, Manav recollects, “I was very naïve when I came to the city. I liked the song — Zara Hathke, Zara Bachke. It brought me to the city. And I simply packed my bag and came here. I was doing things without paying much heed to the future. Of course, there are hard times, but those are also the most important times when you learn the best of not just the craft but also how to live.”
While Chuhal, his newest play, has hit the right chord with audience, his advice to the younger aspirants is to be open to experience. “One must not close oneself. One must believe that they are capable of doing things,” he says.
The famous Strugglers’ Lane in Andheri and the nondescript lanes of Aramnagar II are some hotspots for such aspiring souls. Enter any coffee shop, and you are bound to find a group or solo writers discussing or working on their next project. Actors, however, face double the trouble, according to Arnesh. “There is a hideous pressure to always look good, go to the gym and maintain their hair, go for spas and facials, do those yoga classes, go for those Bollywood dance classes. But Bollywood dance is not enough, so you need to do salsa, and zumba, and cha-cha and bachata. In spaces like these, casting directors are on the prowl all the time. And one does not have the luxury to miss an opportunity,” he says.
Manjari Fadnis got her first breakthrough in Rok Sako Toh Rokh Lo right after completing her 12th Board Exams. But that didn’t assure her much.
“The film didn’t do well and I was constantly in search of work. But people would often tell me that they were looking for a new face, which I found quite ridiculous because not many people had watched my first film,” says Manjari. Eventually she got her second break in Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na, which earned her a Stardust Award for Breakthrough Performance. However, that again ushered in a new set of troubles for her. “Eventually I was typecast as a supporting lead, and then I found myself struggling to break out of that too,” she explains. In her upcoming film, Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai, she aptly plays a character determined to achieve her dreams.
In a city where thousands of aspiring actors land with dreams of following the trajectory of the Khans, only a few are able to carve out a niche for themselves. One among them would be Rajkummar Rao, whose latest film, Newton, was screened at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival. Reiterating Manav’s idea of living life and enjoying the journey, Rajkummar says, “I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of looking for work post Film and Television Institute of India (FTII).”
When the path gets tough, Rajkummar says that one must channelise the energy in the right direction. To actors, he says, continuous work is the only way to survive. “One should keep working on the craft. That’s what keeps one going and in my case when I was looking for work, a couple of my friends from the Institute and I used to work everyday, be it on improvisations or scene work. It always helps when you don’t know what’s going to happen to you tomorrow in this big city,” he concludes.
Watch Andheri, a play on the hardships of the actors and filmmakers,
On February 24, 6 pm, at Sathaye At Vile Parle, Dixit Road, Vile Parle (E)
