Actress Kamya Panjabi tells Jayesh Pawar that television and theatre are like her children. While one is of 15 years, the other is a new-born

The television industry in India still continues to score high but can the same be said for theatre? Instinctively, the comparison feels inapt as they are two different worlds. Poles apart. Theatre is very dynamic, spontaneous and transitional. Actress Kamya Panjabi, having worked for more than 15 years in the industry, now steps into the world of theatre with a play titled Pajama Party. She says, “Television is a piece of cake and anybody can do it whereas on the other hand, theatre is not everybody’s cup of tea.”

Directed by Atul Satya Kaushik, the play revolves around four female friends — Darsha, Aisha, Kalyani and Urvi, who are from Mumbai and each of them is standing at a crucial juncture of their lives. They gather for a pajama party at Aisha’s place, who lives there with her boyfriend Abhay. The night progresses with music, fun, jokes and food but what happens post that changes their lives forever. But instead of succumbing to it they decide to stand against it and find a maverick way to deal with this sudden change in their lives.

Recalling how she ended up saying yes to Atul for the role, Kamya explains, “When this role came to me, I decided to politely decline the offer by meeting Atul sir in person as I already had a very tight schedule but the way he described the plot of the show. I just couldn’t say no.”

Talking about the character she plays, the Shakti actress says, “My friend Ishan Yadav, who is the co-producer of the show, told me that Atul sir was looking for someone like Kamya for the role. So the character that I have portrayed completely resembles to my personality and is quite strong and independent.”

While everybody on the team had a lot of time for rehearsing for the play, Kamya had to manage the shooting schedule of Shakti and the rehearsal of the play. Speaking about what she used to do to make the most out of the short practise sessions, she says, “I made sure that I knew my lines by heart, not just my lines, infact I knew other actor’s lines as well. By doing this I had the whole play in my mind. Now when you have memorised everything then you actually know what is happening in which scene, like after my dialogue, I knew who will speak and even what are they going to speak. So the whole situation became a bit easy.”

Kamya feels that there is a huge risk that one takes while improvising in theatre, whether the other actor can handle the improvisation or not, that’s a chance that one takes. “In television if I improvised something and if the other actor didn’t understand it, the scene can be cut but in theatre there are no cuts. Even if you have handled the situation by improvising it and still the other actor cannot deliver his dialogues then it’ll still be a big mess,” she adds while comparing the process of improvisation in television to that in theatre.

Further talking about the theme of the play, Kamya shares that what does it mean to be a modern Indian women. “In our society people are really judgemental and everybody is worried about the fact that what will people think. This thought of what would people think or say is the biggest worry. Sometimes in the fear of this thought, we don’t share our views, opinions and our pain with our family also. So, we need to stop that and stand up to express ourselves. I mean it is literally the high time that we start taking a stand. This is the time when kids and women are being abused both physically as well as mentally. The things that are happening in today’s era must come to an end and this can only be done by taking a firm stand for ourselves. The concept of modern Indian women for me is to speak for yourself and stand up against wrong because if you can’t take a stand for yourself then nobody else will.”

Apprising us about her experience of the time spend in the world of theatre, the newbie says, “I have realised that there’s still a lot to learn and it’s a never-ending process. The world of theatre has a lot to offer and I am looking forward to learn new things as well as performing better. Television and theatre are like children to me, while one is of 15 years, the other is a newborn. Although I want to keep on doing television for the rest of my life but theatre has got a different kind of high in it.”

(The play will be staged on June 29 at Sri Ram Centre for Arts.)