‘I’M NOT AT ALL OPEN TO THE TREND OF VIRTUAL PLAYS’
The actor-writer talks about his life during the lockdown
thought I had travel would that I this time during my time enjoy and mountains the couldn’t but KAUL, MANAV
This is the way I’ve always lived my life. I don’t go out. I don’t do parties because I don’t enjoy it. I’m very ghar ghusra. I read, write and go for walks,” says Manav Kaul as he points out that there is no difference between the life he’s leading right now and the one that he led prior to the lockdown. While he’s upset about not being able to explore his love for travelling during these tough times,
Actor-writer he’s happy writing books. “I love travelling. I had thought that I would travel during this time and enjoy my time in the mountains but couldn’t,” he says, adding, “But I wrote and released my novel, Antima, during the lockdown last year. I’ll be releasing my next book, which is my first poetry collection, next month.”
Kaul’s play, Chuhal, that was staged early this year opened to packed houses even amid the pandemic. “I thought that I would be uncomfortable performing because people would be wearing masks and that would stop me from seeing their faces and interacting with them. But everything happened smoothly because I was looking at their eyes. That’s when I realised that we perform for the eyes,” he says.
Ask him about the trend of plays going online and he says, “I’m not at all open to the trend of virtual plays.” The Thappad (2020) actor explains, “I had been approached by multiple platforms to record my plays but I’ve never done it. You cannot stretch a play; it is supposed to die the moment the show ends. They should run in the memory of people and not on the screen with the click of a button. Plays are not films.”
in