The Actor

Sometime ago I thought of making a database of all the plays I had done and the nitty gritty's associated with each production . Lets hope I can complete it in 3 posts .

1st year :

# 1 : This might be a sort of a prelude to whatever is supposed to come, but i believe this part of the story is important for explaining the rest of the things which are about to come. It is my 2nd evening in a place called IIT Kharagpur. I am relaxing in Dipayan Banerjee's room( fortunately he had a single room from the beginning, so it was a safe refuge for us to maaro bhaat). Two imposing figures suddenly appeared at the door, with the following retort "Are you bengali ? " Damm hell we were, could you hear the banter going on full volume in our mother tongue ? Well we were supposed to report to a place called the gymkhana for auditions for the bengali dramatics society. Suddenly I made myself scarce as i remembered all of a sudden the necessity to take a bath. One month later following the invitations of a couple of friends , i went to watch my first play in IIT . It wasnt so bad , and perhaps I felt it was really my cup of tea.

#2 : Pre Midsem in my first year, I was making a customary trip back to my room after an evening spent in Rakesh's room (our customary cyber cafe for the 1st sem) , when I stopped to have a peek inside JCB mess . Rehearsels were on for Open IIT English Drams by Anirban Ghosh (since then christened "Load"). I stepped in and stayed there for one evening. Came back the next , and the process continued till we staged the play in Netaji. Still, I didn't get up on stage to act.

#3 : Post Midsem , very near Diwali, after an afternoon of Volley, I had a bath and was contemplating on finally studying, when a knock on my door forced me to open it. Out of the blue Mr. Atin Bannerjee stares at my face. His only remark is " Oh ! It's you. Grab some trousers and come with me. " I am taken to a "Senior Hall" for the first time and it was some where inside Nehru Hall C Block where I got to meet Somesh Prasad Roy and Subhadeep Roy. Suddenly a script was thrust into my hand, some brief reading of the role assigned followed (Later i found out it was my audition, However the heads at that time were so desperate to find a cast for their 5th play , even if I said it badly I would have been taken.) After some time Sudip Sarkar (who had by that time some how slipped in the room ) said that I would be doing the role of Jibon Mistry. It was friday. Play was scheduled on tuesday. Rehearsels would commence immediately and i was to report to the Old building Foyer at 9 pm that night. That was my introduction to BTDS, a name which become a major part of my own identity in the years to come.
{ Later I found out yet again , I had been sold by Load Ghosh. The Open IIT is a competition which gains validity only if there are 5 participating teams. Till thursday night there were only 4 teams . Hence it was extremely vital that a 5th play be staged. Most of the experienced people at that time were involved in a play called Vikramaditya , which had a cast of 20 odd people. For the 5th play Somesh da had asked Load to play a part. Load shirked off this responsibility by striking out a deal saying that he would be excused if he provided 2 more people for the 5th play. The wily fellow ensured his absence by introducing me and Arnab to the society }

At night 9 pm old building was completely different from what it looked like in the morning. It was sort of eerie , combined with the lack of people , some shady lighting and a history of matyrs who had become shaheed on that very spot. There I first met the rest of the group. I got to watch the rehearsals of Vikramaditya and found out that these people were a lot more professional and it would be quite different from the school plays I acted in. The degree of seriousness was measured from the fact that the writer of the play had been called for the rehearsals , so that all of the cast could understand the play !
So after some serious acting, I was a bit nervous about having to rehearse then and there. Still i could say I scraped through the script reading on thursday and friday. Saturday afternoon I have my first rehearsal. I still do not know how it was .... comments were strictly refrained. Sunday less rehearsals, just some words of wisdom from Tirtho da , people concentrating totally on Vikramaditya. The first run through of the play.
Next day is the stage production of Vikramaditya. I stay dazed after the performance. Still one of the best I have seen till date. The gang is more than happy . Elated faces supervise our 2nd run through . The first run through for Sudeep , Pinki , Atin da and Sujoy da , and for me and Arnab, the second one.
D Day 5 pm just in front of Sup-Dup, we have our final run through!!! 8 pm we have our production.... I don some heavy makeup with a flowing beard and moustache. Particulars of the play : I give a monologue for 5 mins in which Arnab has to freeze, so basically while I am making up a story of my own and increasing the length to near 10 mins Arnab has to literally stand on one leg !
Some time later the results come out.. with only 3 run throughs our play comes 3rd, and I am capped as the best actor. Till now I havent been able to remember what happened next. All of a sudden I am swept off my feet Literally carried out in front of Netaji to recieve my first dose of something called "GPL " ... People from all around Netaji landed in a jiffy to smack my arse with incredible force, Sujoy da in particlar taking a long Run-up before landing his boot on my bottom.
Welcome to Acting !!! No 1 in the bag .

# 4 : Just after Winter break , time for Inter Hall. This time Load all out blazing guns . We are stormed by his methodical approach to Drama. This guy counts the number of steps you take in a single monolouge so that you can use atleast 5 of the sets in one go. We have loads of problems during rehearsals including me being one irresponsible fellow vanishing to my brother's marriage on the day of the lights rehearsal ! If I were to go into the intricate details it would be long and boring. So to cut the chase Let me recall the hero of the day . Amitava Bhattacharyya ! The man who would become the headlight of BTDS in the future. The scene was to show the death of one of the characters being crushed to death under the wheels of a lorry. Amitava laid a beautiful plan , and the scene was so graphic that at the end of the play the judges praised this one lights effect beyond par. We didnt win anything that day but the true hero remained Amitava.

# 5. : Annuals 2003. Perhaps the fondest of all memories i have related to my IIT stay . I do not remember how I got roped in to the entire process, but before I knew it the nights would be spent at the insti foyer, my second home for the years to come. With a gigantic cast and some multitalented seniors all round it was quite a nice change to actually sit down , sing some songs , dance and enjoy all the fun. At first even I had to sing a song up on stage but thanks to Sudip da I was demoted to the ranks of a standby. Thank god .. it really was a tough song , and the play "Ei sohor Ei somai " was the toughest play I had ever been a part of. But incidentally I do not remember the hard work which was put into it . It was all fun ad frolic for most of us in our 1st year.
Some incidents which do remain priceless
# Amitava sleeping on stage during the rehearsels when everyone around him got up danced to a song for approx 5 mins and then sat down again .
# The chewing gum episodes , when during practise sessions we used to have chewing gum in our mouths courtsey Sujoyda
# Hooting Debjoy da on stage , who incidentally was one of the best singers in IIT at that time. I even got to whistle on stage !
# And the grand la grande treat given by the profs after the production. Basically then even we did not know who was giving the treat, we just went there and ate :P

One year down ..... four more to go
Will update soon ..