TV actor Karan Sharma, last seen in Dastaan-E-Mohabbat Salim Anarkali, is quite excited about his return to stage. He is essaying the lead role in love triangle comedy Hindi play, Blind Date (Saakar creations).
“My NRI character falls in love with a girl, played by Shweta Rohira (Pulkit Samrat’s ex-wife), who spurns him. What he does to get his love is what the play is all about. Preetam Singh, big boss Pranav Tripathi (producer), Kinjal Bhatta and Vinayak Ketkar complete the principal cast.”
“I had begun my acting career with the National School of Drama, where I did English and Kanadda plays. This is my first tryst with theatre in the lingua franca of the nation. Luckily for me, this being a commercial play, we are not using ornamental Hindi. Being metro-specific, there is a healthy use of English as well. Last but not the least, as I am playing a Punjabi, there is a sprinkling of this north Indian lingo as well.”
How did your early stage experience help your TV career?
“Well, while on the one hand, stage opens you up as a performer, films and TV are a different medium where, unlike theatre, you also need to underplay as opposed to stage where you have to necessarily be loud.”
“At first, I would try to give one- take shots, but later realized that giving more takes is fine as long as you deliver the goods,” added Karan, who began his tube journey with Pyaar Ka Bandhan. His other shows have been Sapnon Se Bhare Naina, Bandani, etc.
“One of the main reasons for staying away from stage for so long was that the latter requires a lot of time for rehearsals, and money on stage is still less and I needed to make ends meet. Luckily, now commercial theatre is good moolah as well.”
How was the experience of working with Shweta? “This is her maiden Hindi stage presentation too, so we are helping each other on the way.”
But was Jai Soni not doing this play before with Chestha Bhagat? “Yes, but they had to be replaced due to date issues. I have no problems for I was always looking forward to come back to my first love.”
“So far, I have done two shows with them and one more will be held in Mumbai on the 25th. We also plan to travel overseas with the troupe.”
Blind Date was originally a Gujarati play written by Pranav. Its Hindi avatar is penned by Raman Kumar and directed by Prasad Khandekar.
Apart from stage, Karan is now looking to move to films as well. “I have a few good offers. Let’s see how things pan out. To be honest, doing films is easier than doing TV, where you don’t get prep time. On the other hand, like stage, you also get film scripts long in advance.”
