"I am not ambitious," she says and despite that she has been around for more than two decades, doing good work in theatre. Paromita Chatterjee, an actor who has been a constant in almost all of Om Katare's plays is a recognised face on Hindi stage. KAAL CHAKRA, CHINTA CHHOD CHINTAMANI, DILLI OONCHA SUNTI HAI, TERI MERI PREM KAHANI, RAJNEETI, CHANDU KI CHACHI, DADAJI KAHIN are some of her notable plays. Apart from acting Paromita also conducts speech and diction classes in Hindi and English for most of the workshops conducted by Yatri.
By Jahnavi Pal
Looking back at the long years spent on stage Paromita reflects, "It's been a very interesting journey but honestly I never thought I would last this long!" she says with a laugh as she continues. "Yes, I was always interested in acting since my school days. It's always been a passion but always stayed somewhere on the back burner as marriage, kids and responsibilities became my priority. But as luck would have it Om Katare was my neighbour and I would watch all his rehearsals. In fact I told him someday I too would join him but he rubbished it saying I had other priorities. But my mind was set and once the kids grew up I joined Yatri, his company. But most of the actors were in their twenties and I was thirty seven. Plays require you to give a lot of your time and as the kids were still young I took one step at a time. The parallel story continued and soon I was doing what I always wanted to do, being on stage."
Paromita then went on to join Yatri as a backstage artiste after having attended a workshop conducted by Katare. "This marked the beginning of my journey on stage. Let me tell you about my debut on stage. It so happened that there was a show coming up and one the girls was pregnant. She opted out as we had to travel to Dubai for one of the shows. Since I used to be present for all the rehearsals I knew the lines and hence Om asked me if I would do the role. I agreed. Frankly I never knew when I would get a chance to be on stage and this was a pleasant surprise. This play was CHHOO MANTAR and Rajiv Varma was playing the lead. I played his wife. I was quite jittery as I had not rehearsed as much as the other actors but I managed. This was a good learning. Everything I know of this craft has been taught to me by Om. From being a backstage worker to being an actor, he has a big role to play in my career. Of course I have also learnt a lot from everyone who performed at Prithvi as I would watch almost all plays there. I even imbibed a lot from watching Bengali plays. I observed very keenly and this helped me evolve as an actor. But nothing plays a bigger role than gaining through the experience of being on stage. Each time you are on stage you learn something new. You learn to improvise, you learn from other actors and this learning never ends."
Paromita has played a gamut of roles in different plays. Comic, serious, dramatic she has done them all. But the one play she is really proud of is CHHOO MANTAR. "I was 38 and playing a much older woman in my very first play. This was a huge challenge. Then of course the other play in which I pushed my limits was a children's play called NAKCHADI where I played a villager. In DILLI OONCHA SUNTI HAI too I play a much older woman whose children are married so this one too was challenging. Coming to a play that I still perform, KAAL CHAKRA where I play a 70 year old who is ill-treated by her children and put in an old age home, was also a great experience as it is in complete contrast to my real life. But the children's play DADAJI KAHIN where we all play ghosts was so enjoyable as we all dress up as ghosts but unfortunately we had very few shows."
Explaining why she never ever moved out of her comfort zone of Yatri and never did plays outside the actor laughs, " Laziness. I wanted to and it was easy just being with them. In between I did take off for some time when I pursued films and other mediums. Starting afresh with someone else meant I would once again have to start as a back bencher and that didn't appeal to me. I have done TV too but it's so stereotypical and after doing it for a couple of years I opted out as it does not suit my temperament. For many this may sound foolish, but my bread and butter doesn't come from acting. I didn't come to become an actor. I wanted to become and actor and as luck would have it things fell into place. It may be lack of motivation. If I am offered a role where I have to go to shoot in Naigaon or some such far off place I would refuse."
There are few roles for people like me. Ultimately I am playing a mother in films. Talking of age, a few years ago I attended a theatre workshop by Anna Helena McLean, where she does physical theatre. I was a bit apprehensive as I had crossed fifty and wondered if I was fit to do a physical workshop. I wanted to explore and despite being with people half my age I thoroughly enjoyed myself. So if I want to do something I can achieve it but most of the time I lack motivation and that holds me back. At times it's other things that take precedence and I refuse a role. Currently the only play I commit to is KAAL CHAKRA as I love doing it. It's not like earlier when I did shows every weekend. At one point I remember that during one of our festivals I was performing for 19 days out of the 22 days and on Saturdays did three shows back to back."
"Coming to the current tough times I think it's very tough for people in theatre to survive. The economics of theatre is really bad. Even if you get a government grant it's not enough. One has to depend on the largesse of people. One puts in a lot of effort but the returns are dismal. Om Katare does it because he wants to do it. Others have branched out. As for me I do it as my livelihood has never depended on it. I do it because of my passion for acting. Another thing that bothers me is now an actor is as good as the number of followers he has on social media. What has this got to do with talent? This is something I don't understand. I don't do it and people feel I can't market myself which is the need of the hour. Probably that's the reason I don't bag as many roles as I should."
*Jahnavi Pal is a journalist, writer and theatre buff
