What is your
workshop - ‘The Drama in Me’ “ all about?
Rashi Bunny: ‘The Drama in Me’ is a theatre workshop with a difference! It is “ Theatre + Music + Story + Movement + Magic = ME. You have a drama where various family members between the age group of 8-88 can participate. The workshop is not for a particular genre, but for everyone because when you connect and create in this kind of milieu with activities such as theatre games, music and movement, all of this breaks the barriers and making exciting new connections.
Tell us about ‘The Goddess Element’
‘The Goddess Element’ is an experiential workshop. Using the tools of theatre and music, we travel a unique journey of joyful self - discovery. As an individual as well as through the creative dynamics of a cohort of seekers, we learn to come to a profound stillness. In 2.5 hours, he or she will experience the easy, effortless, entertaining process of meeting the ‘Goddess Within’.
Which is your favourite and most talked about character on stage (or in cinema)?
It’s Madhavi, which goes by the same title as that of the play, written by Bhishm Sahani, on the life of a girl / woman / daughter / wife / lover / mother, in a patriarchal society. It draws from a story in Mahabharat but in narration, it is very contemporary. It’s a full length play which we adapted into a solo performance and I played 17 male characters and one Madhavi. It travelled across India and in other countries too. It has been staged in solo festivals, international solo and theatre festivals, especially organised by the UNESCO board of theatre called ITI and invited to perform and represent India. This was in 2003-04 when lot of people didn’t know that solo can be a full production with sets, lights, costumes, original music, background scores and sounds. We had musicians playing rare instruments such as sarangi and there were blank canvases that I painted while I performed - with mehendi, turmeric, sindoor and neel. It became a very big play. It actually made me a star overnight because of the power it held on stage and the power with which we shook people up.
What is it that makes a person an actor?
When they are little, kids love to imitate. They are dramatic, expressive and creative. They absorb keenly the situations around them and can put anything into performance. So, it would lead anyone (with some talent and background) to become an actor but who is truly an actor if you ask me, when I am auditioning and am starting a new production with acting “ I ask, can you stand naked on the stage and it’s not just literally, (of course literally too) but what I mean by that is, can you bear your soul without an inch of hesitation, without an iota of needing to hide.
What I really mean by that is - integrating your mind, body, heart, spirit, your past experiences and your future dreams, and your present condition into a powerful amalgamation, that you can step out of it, holding the whole power but staying out of it, in that absolute moment of vulnerability, can you face those thousand eyes, standing alone in that limelight on that stage? If you can do that you are an actor.
As an artist what have you achieved?
Oh God, how do I say that, what have I achieved? Have I? I have lot of people who love me a lot, whose name I may not remember. There are people who respect me a lot, again I don’t know where I met them and why, there are people who get inspired by me, people I don’t even know. All I have achieved is that I have stood on my two feet and dared to look up into the sky and believed in it so much that it started to look real to everybody else whose life got touched by my work.
Share your work in the social context and with NGOs. Which issues are close to your heart?
I have worked with lot of NGOs from lot of cities and places in India, and I have never gone and done it on my own, except once, in Jaipur. Most of the work I have done with NGOs is “ obviously always with children girls, women and most of them are doing work on education. It is just by divine design. I have never chosen this. But these are close to my heart “ women, children and education.
Which are the issues you have fought for?
You can’t become a theatre artist in India without fighting at multiple levels “ I am 44, now people ask me, why are you not on television or in films, as if that is the next step in the ladder of life of a theatre artist. You cannot say one thing you have fought for. There are many. People who come to Banjara stay together because I show them the power of complete and absolute uniqueness in their own being “ the most imp thing is to be trusting, believing and working and expressing and being who you are. That’s what I have done.
