When Srivatsa was
posted in Bangalore, I acted in a Kannada Play for the MICO Fine Arts Club.
This was my first big role as the heroine, I had to play the part of a girl who
falls in love , marries the man, gets back to her parents house, disillusioned
with her husband and is advised to make up with him, I loved doing it as it had
a tremendous scope for histrionics. The play was staged at the Glass House in
Lalbagh and in the first couple of rows sat the entire gang from Srivatsa’s
family including his uncles and aunts!
Dr Rangachar(Late)
his wife Vimala and Sharada and Umesh Rudra(Late) were well known names in theatre
circles in Bangalore. They were staging
a sit com for a conference and they invited me to join them. I was to be the
glamorous girl friend of the men from their past and the play was about them
being caught by their wives while entertaining me.
But all along,
there was this urge to act in a movie. Kannada
film industry was on the threshold of art cinema. Girish Karnad, B V Karant,
Girish Kasarvalli, were some of the
pioneers. I passed the word around through my friend Tuppa Shanti who was
establishing herself in art cinema, that I was willing to act. Girish
Kasarvalli was looking for someone to do the lead role in his unconventional Ghatashradha and came home to assess my
suitability. I did not make it. But never one to give up, I kept on the lookout.
We were in Mysore to attend a niece’s wedding and I heard Girish Karnad was staying in a hotel.
Instead of writing what happened, let me reproduce my narrative which appeared
in Stardust
"I met Girish Karnad
in his room in Hotel Kaveri in Mysore, four years ago. Married and a mother of
two grown- up children by then, I felt more confident about my reputation and
my ability to safeguard it. With my new maturity I was also bitten by the
acting bug and genuinely wanted to try my hand at it. Someone suggested that I
should meet an influential gentlemen, a professor of English in the University
of Mysore, who could probably help me go about things the right way. (I agreed
because I didn’t want to end up as a bad joke.) The Professor heard me out and
felt that I could perhaps venture into art films. Armed with the letter of
introduction which he kindly gave me, I went to meet Karnad in his hotel. The
receptionist called his room and Karnad promptly told her to send me up. A
discreet knock on the door and it opened immediately. There stood Mr. Karnad
with only a Towel round his midriff ! My middle – class upbringing protested at
this blatant show of masculine splendour and I believe I blushed. Karnad looked
confused! He’d obviously expected a male
visitor . He hastily apologised for his scanty attire and asked me to be seated
while he had a shower and changed. I thought it more prudent to wait outside. (you
never know if film journalists are lurking around some where in the corridors !
)
After a couple of
minutes ,he asked me to come in .now he has more amused than confused. I sat
near the door on a stool ,trying discreetly to keep the door open with my elbow
.Karnad was engrossed in the letter I gave him ,or so I thought , until
suddenly he asked me if the door was bothering me ! Feeling foolish, I removed my elbow and let the door
close with a bang. While he continued reading the letter , I looked around at
the disheveled room. My homemaking instincts protested at the untidiness, but
then, what else could one expect from a bachelor? In a voice that wowed me, he asked me what
kind of role l’d like to do . I reeled off my specifications….. nothing more
than my face to be exposed, no male actor to come anywhere near me, and the
character to be a clean and healthy one. He looked a little stunned at this and
said that such restrictions would only fetch me the role of a dead woman and
that too was doubtful, since men would be required to carry a dead body !”
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