Shweta Tripathi: Entertainment not tagged ‘essential services’, but needed always

New Delhi: ‘Masaan’ actress Shweta Tripathi Sharma says that performing arts will always exist. “I know we aren’t labelled as essential services but no matter what you do, you will always need entertainment,” she told to a correspondent in an interview.

Shweta, has acted in “Timeloss”, a digital play produced by Akvarious Productions. Adapted and directed by Akarsh Khurana, “Timeloss” was originally written by the celebrated Iranian playwright Amir Reza Koohestani.

Q: On her engagement with theatre and acting

A: My parents and sister were always culturally inclined. Since I can remember, we used to watch Prithvi Theatre Festival plays, visit Kamani auditorium in Delhi regularly, and watch Hema Malini’s dance recitals. My dad’s an IAS officer and mom’s a teacher, now both retired, and they believed that you get what knowledge you can from books but your personality develops through the arts. So ever since I was a child, I was encouraged to participate in extracurricular activities and I enjoyed being on stage.

I only started acting professionally on stage once I moved to Bombay (Mumbai). One thing that I am very grateful for is Thespo, a youth theatre festival that introduced me to the theatre circuit in Bombay. My closest friends are from theatre, I met my husband through theatre, so it’s given me a lot.

Q: On her experience with ‘Timeloss’

A: Akarsh Khurana reached out to my husband, Chaitnya Sharma, and I to act in his new digital theatre production of Timeloss. We’ve known him, loved him and worked with him for many years so we were very excited by this new prospect of working together. The production tells the story of two actors who used to be a couple and had shot a short film together who are required to come together ten years later to revisit it. Chaitnya and I play the younger couple in the short film, while Siddharth Kumar and Dilshad Edibam Khurana play our characters ten years on.

Q: On how she gets ‘into the character’

A: What’s different about the stage from the camera is that you get a lot of rehearsal in theatre. We rehearse until we not only understand our characters and lines but also our presence in the play and with the other characters. That’s not the case when we work on camera. Every character has a different journey and every actor has a different process. So for stage, understanding the script is always very important to me.

Q: On lockdown and her upcoming plans.

A: The lockdown period has been a spiritual journey for me. I have realised the kind of work I want to do and that it would take time to do it. It’s good to be choosy and also every time you play a new character the journey is emotional as well as physical. So I think it’s important to pick where you give your energy. I am very grateful and feel blessed for the kind of projects I have been doing. ‘Raat Akeli Hai’ just released, ‘The Gone Game’, ‘Cargo’, will release soon and of course ‘Mirzapur’ Season 2 will be out on 23 October. So there is work happening and I hope that I am always here entertaining everybody, because I love doing that.