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How did you discover your love for theatre? My school, though average, had some eminent teachers. It was run by a minority trust in Kashmir. Our principal, Dinanath Nadim, was a prominent Kashmiri poet who has several poetry books, short stories and folk songs to his credit, which are sung even till date. He used to write short plays for us and we would enact them. After school, we used to have two hours of extracurricular classes. At that time, the approach towards education was more wholistic. It was an egalitarian culture in Kashmir and there were more than 20 big theatre groups at that time. I have seen Begum Akhtar and Md. Rafi performing live. I became an actor in school, pursued theatre in college in Kashmir and got state scholarship to study in National School of Drama (NSD) in Delhi. Since then, it has been only theatre for me. You have experienced international theatre closely. How would you compare it to Indian theatre? Abroad, theatre is a profession and people invest in theatre. Theatre groups pay their actors and other supporting staff just like in any other job. They have professional actors, directors, community facilities and infrastructure. There, it’s a competition to hire the best directors and actors. It happens on a grand scale, where technology plays a major role. It takes only seconds
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Theatre debates and works like a mirror of the society for the entire stage to change, which is truly magnanimous. They also have community theatres. In India, we don’t have even one theatre group of such standards, as our government does not believe in spending money on theatre. Still, India has the highest number of voluntary cultural organisations in the world, which means people are spending from their own pockets to pursue their passion. You have actively been promoting theatre in Kashmir for a long time. How did the idea of working with local Kashmiri actors occur to you? It happened when I lost Kashmir.
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With the death of my mother, I lost my only connection with the valley and it left a deep sense of vacuum in my life. In 1992, I went back to Kashmir but it was not the Kashmir of my childhood. Even during the day, the streets wore a deserted look. The architecture, environment, peace and culture of the place – everything was ruined. The local folk theatre culture had almost vanished and actors were forced to do other odd jobs. I decided to do something to revive the old charm of Kashmir and started taking theatre workshops. I started with only two Kashmiri actors who had stopped performing for 10 years. Slowly, the numbers increased. Today, I have trained many artistes and have produced plays with them. I work in villages
Hobbies I enjoy cooking and make good Kashmiri food. Both my son and I are hooked onto organic farming these days, which we carry out in the space in our front yard. We have grown many vegetables there. I also love to read and write. I love to spend time in Safdar
August 2014 | www.spiceroutemag.com
Hashmi Memorial Trust with my friends, which I call my university. Here, we discuss topics like culture, rights of artists, freedom of expression, theatre and more. Also when I am free, I love to wander about the market, browsing through the shops.