SHWETA ENTHRALS DELHI, THIS TIME ON THE STAGE
Shweta Tiwari returned to acting with Rakesh Bedi’s play about relationships, held in the city
One of mainstream Hindi television’s most memorable faces, Shweta Tiwari isn’t a name that only hardcore daily soap fans of the 2000s will recall. Delivering impactful dialogues throughout her television caree, Shweta always made her presence felt. And as she took to the stage for veteran actor Rakesh Bedi’s play Jab We Separated, in Delhi recently, she proved that not much has changed as far as her talent goes.
But this wasn’t her first time on stage. “I have done so many plays. I started with theatre. Many people know about it. But after so many years of television, people’s memory fades. Before this play, I did a long solo (theatrical) performance, called Aaine Ke Sau Tukde,” she shares, adding that the play’s English remake is coming to Delhi.
“After Aaine Ke Sau Tukde, I stopped doing plays because it takes a lot of effort. One has to travel so much, and after the baby, my patience was too low. But when Rakesh ji came with this script to me, it was so good [that] I couldn’t say no,” says Shweta. The performance was her first since the birth of her son Reyansh, in 2016.
Returning to acting wasn’t easy for Tiwari, who is still mothering her one-and-a-halfyear-old. “I said okay I’ll go ahead but cannot come out for the play’s rehearsals because my baby is so young. My son, normally, is not a very difficult child, but I still breastfeed him, so he’s completely dependent on me. He has this particular schedule of eating and sleeping, and needs me (around him). That’s what I told them, ‘I’m ready to rehearse for nine hours, but I should be closer to my son and in my house if possible. And they said, ‘OK [we’ll rehearse] in your house.’ So, more than me, it was the team that was trying to adjust with me. Rahul (Bhuchar, male lead and producer) is a very sweet person [who] agreed to everything I said. He used to travel every weekend from Delhi to Mumbai. Friday night he would come, we would rehearse for seven-eight hours, and Monday morning he would fly back.”
It was the script of the play, above all, that convinced her to say yes to the play. “Every man or woman can relate to this play. It doesn’t matter whether married, unmarried, or single —if one has ever had a relationship in their life, they will relate to this subject. And every male has cheated on their partner mentally or physically once in their lifetime. Why I say cheated is because wahi same cheez agar aurat karegi — if she meets a male friend or goes out for dinner or coffee with a male friend — the man will not like it. But if a man does it because he found somebody attractive, [he thinks] it’s absolutely fine because he’s a man,” she says.
I told them, ‘I’m ready to rehearse for nine hours, but I should be closer to my son and in my house, if possible. And they said, ‘OK, [we’ll rehearse] in your house.’ So, more than me, it was the team that was trying to adjust with me.
SHWETA TIWARI ACTOR, ON HER STAGE COMEBACK