Aditya Rawal Takes the Title of Playwright and Producer as ‘Siachen’ Opens at Prithvi Theatre Today

Actor and author Aditya Rawal most recently featured in the play As Bees in Honey Drown and Faraaz, directed by Anahita Uberoi and  Hansal Mehta respectively. But if experience are any indication, he is far from a newcomer. Son of actor Paresh Rawal, Aditya studied innovative theatre and performance at the London International School of Performing Arts (Lispa) before earning an MFA in dramatic writing from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He has skills in acting and scripting, and he will soon debut Siachen, a play that he created during the pandemic.

Zahan Kapoor, Shashi Kapoor’s grandson, a partner and a dear friend who also appeared in Faraaz and takes the lead in the play, goes with him on his journey to Siachen on stage. Along with him are Niketan Sharma, Jatin Sarin, Rohit Mehra, Chitransh Pawar, Seerat Mast. Siachen, directed by Makrand Deshpande, is slated to begin performances at the Prithvi Theatre today. Here, the playwright, Aditya Rawal, discusses his experience writing Siachen, his forthcoming projects, and everything in between.

Excerpts from the interview:

1. What inspired you to pen the tale of Siachen and have Makrand Deshpande, who seldom directs plays that weren’t written by him?

I’d always found the Siachen Glacier interesting ever since I read about it, this idea of the highest, coldest battlefield on earth, where even just survival is a testament to someone’s mental, physical and emotional strength. But I got more fascinated by the place once I went deeper into it, the idea that the highest, coldest battlefield on earth, but not a single bullet has been shot on the glacier for the last 20 years. Yet we are compelled to send men up there. So many lives are lost. So much money is spent to maintain our presence on the glacier. So to me, it was very interesting, this question, why are we compelled to send people up there? And through the course of my research, through the course of writing the play, which initially I thought of, you know, as an anti-war play. But as I sort of dive deeper into it, I realized that the truth is much more complex, you know, and I wanted to get to the root of that.

Makrand sir and I spoke and of course Zahan and I who had sort of nursed Siachen like our own little baby for the past one year, we decided to sort of ask Makran sir if he would be interested in directing Siachen. We read it for him and he seemed to like it enough, find it an interesting enough world to sort of sink his teeth into and it was just great. I want to say that people like Mr. Makrandesh Pandey, who are such wonderful sort of theatre veterans, you know, it is, it really leads to something special when they support young voices, new voices like ours and Makrand sir stepped in and really enriched the play, he elevated it to another level and we’re ever so grateful to him for it.

2. You have held the positions of writer, director, actor, and author in the past 29 years. Which one do you believe you most enjoyed doing and which one is closest to you?

Well, I enjoy the idea of donning multiple hats. To me, it’s always been about telling stories, right? And it is the story that I’m attracted to. It is the story that I want to tell. It is a story sometimes that’s within me that I want to bring out into the world. Now, to do that, there are different roles you have to occupy. You know, you have to in this case, I had to take up the role of the writer because this was a story that I had sort of brewing within me and I wanted to bring it out into the world and so I had to write it. Other stories which I’ve worked on as an actor I found deeply interesting I found the collaborators to be just people I wanted to work with and so I jumped in as an actor the same goes for mediums you know whether it’s theater whether it’s film it’s the story that dictates it.

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While I enjoy every role that I play, especially that of acting and writing, I think those two are my real sorts. Whether it’s writing plays, books, screenplays, poetry, even that sort of thing, acting again on stage or on the screen. I enjoy those very much. I think they both sort of lend a value to the other. Being a writer makes me a better actor and vice versa. As far as direction is concerned, I’ve directed like just a couple of small things, but really directing a full length play or a feature film myself, I’m sort of still learning. I don’t think I’m there yet to sort of jump in and start directing. I don’t think I have that kind of experience yet.

3. What is the other activity you have most enjoyed doing, besides acting, theatre, or anything else associated with it?

So I’ve been an avid sportsman ever since I was 3-4 years old. I was deeply interested in cricket and I played very seriously till I was 14. But I was also playing football and handball for my school, both as a goalkeeper. After I graduated from school at the age of like 16, I started playing football professionally.

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And that was just a wonderful journey. It taught me a lot about life, about myself, about the country I live in. I was lucky enough to go to all four corners of India, play with people from all over the world and it really helped me in good stead for life going forward. I’m still very much in touch with the game. I still play competitively for a team called Young Guns in the Super division in Mumbai. Its something that I see as almost therapy.

4. Who is your role model or source of inspiration as an artist, and why? Has there been someone recently whose performance you have been dying to team up with?

Multifaceted storytellers like your Ben Affleck or even going far, far back, Charlie Chaplin or Orson Welles, these are people that really took charge of the stories they wanted to tell. They took up challenges that were at that point far greater than what they thought they were capable of. They were able to pull it off and if they failed, they failed spectacularly and that I find really inspiring that their bravery and their ability to sort of keep going in while dawning different hats. I think that these three to me are massive inspirations.

5. How did Paresh Rawal, an actor and father, respond to your choice to be both an actor and a writer? What piece of sound advise has he imparted to you over the course of his noteworthy experience?

He has really encouraged me. He offered me the right kind of motivation at the right kind of time. It’s really important when a writer or an actor or any artist is starting out. There has to be a the correct mix of gentleness and truth and and I was really lucky to be on the receiving end of that from him where while he was.

Of course there have been lots of knocks and failures on the way, but he just puts his head down and keeps working. Keeps working at his craft, keeps working on himself, even at his sort of age and and level of seniority and that. What better advice or lesson can one have than that?

6. What do you hope and anticipate from the next shows? What more projects can we expect from you in 2023, and what are they?

I’m just terribly excited to bring this story out into the world along with this fantastic cast and crew led by our director Makrand Deshpande. I’m being the producer as well with our company 72 E Productions. As far as the projects that that will be out in this this year, other projects I’m doing another English play. I’m acting in that one called As Bees in Honey Drown. We have some shows in Delhi then in Bombay coming up soon. I’ve been a part of an Amazon show that should be out later this year that I’m incredibly excited about. I think its a really fun role. Additionally, I’ve written another film which will be out on Jio Cinema again later this year. It’s a slice of live dramedy with a great star cast. Among them are Amit Siyal, my father Paresh Rawal, Sonali Sehgal and Sonali Kulkarni and Faisal Malik. All just great actors who we had a great time making the film with. It’s directed by dear friend Raj Trivedi. So yeah, these are the things that I can look forward. I’m looking forward to this year.

Siachen premieres on the 15^th of June at 9 PM at Prithvi Theatre with more shows on the 16^th, 17^th, and 18^th of June.