7ripathi doesn·t shy away
from Eootstrapping hissets. )or ¶3eepal -hoomey...·
his team created a Yillage
house on their studio terrace
without professional help.ACTOR AND DIRECTOR>>
MOHIT TRIPATHI
He has acted in Bollywood movies and
assisted directors (like Ajay Bahl in
BA Pass), but Mohit Tripathi is known
best for his work in theatre. Having
played parts in Salman Rushdie’s
Haroun and the Sea of Stories and
Mahesh Dattani’s Final Solution,
Tripathi made his directorial debut in
2004 with Refl ections, a play by
Mahesh Elkunchwar. The same year,
he established the Renaisstance
Theatre Society in Delhi, which has now
come to be recognised as a popular
venue for his shows. “I don’t go out
much, so we have created this studio
where artists from different fi elds
exchange ideas. We perform here and
enjoy the evening with 50-60 people
who come to watch us.” More recently,
he has adapted Eugene O’Neill’s
Desire Under the Elms for a feature
fi lm with the title Peepal Jhoomey
Morey Aangna that’s set in rural Uttar
Pradesh. The movie is expected to be
completed in the next two months.
A TITLE FOR HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Entry to Exit or Curtain Call.
A PLAY HE IS MOST PROUD OF
Main Bhi Bachchan...Maalum.“I improvised with the team and
wrote this Bollywood musical comedy,
where the audience gets to dance and
sing with the actors.”
CINEMA VS THEATRE “People are
going back to the theatre due to the
lack of stories, implausible censorship,
and hullaballoo about stars in the
movies. The young crowd, too, prefers
intellectual content in plays. Now that
big banners are getting involved and
more festivals have started surfacing,
I hope that theatre gets its due,” he says.
DOWNTIME My Bar (mybardelhi.com)
and terrace cafes in Paharganj.
TRAVEL BUCKET LIST Kerala,
Ladakh, and Kailash Mansarovar. —A.B.PHOTOGRAPH BY ANIL CHAWLA LOCATION COURTESY TOURIST JANPATH, NEW DELHI