‘AFTER MIRZAPUR PEOPLE CAME TO KNOW I EXIST!’
‘Mirzapur’ and ‘Article 15’ actor Shubrajyoti Barat has religiously done theatre for over two decades. But now, he wishes to focus on films and OTT series.
“I have spent many, many years of life doing theatre but we all know it’s tough to sustain with that medium. At a younger age, one can do it for passion but it’s no longer cute not to have money! So, for money, right now my preference is film and digital medium,” the actor said.
On his UP connection, he said, “I am a Bengali and was born in Kolkata but our four generations have lived in Varanasi. I was 10-years-old when my uncle brought me to Varanasi where I studied at St John’s School. Then we shifted to Mumbai.
“My association with the city is very strong and a lot of Varanasi lives in me. Probably,
I spent my formative years there so I feel very connected to the essence of the city. And, the city gave me my biggest show which made me reach the masses. Earlier, my friends, relatives and people in the theatre world knew me but after playing Rati Shankar Shukla in ‘Mirzapur’ people know that I exist in this world.”
The actor has done three films in Lucknow. “Since my uncle later shifted to the state capital so I kept coming to the city very often. Then my plays kept bringing me to the city regularly. I played a cameo in Anubhav Sinha’s yet-to-be-released film ‘Abhi To Party Shuru Hui Hai’. Thereafter, I shot my favourite film ‘Article-15’ in the outskirts and finally ‘Madam Chief Minister’ in 2019, where I play a political leader.”
He was pursuing engineering when he got attracted to performing arts. “In 1993, I joined Nadira Babbar’s theatre group and for 14 years did plays with them. I worked with others also but then theatre was my only calling. Later, I did small roles in serial ‘Jeevan Sathi’, film ‘Ghanchakkar’, ‘Rukh’ and others,” he said.
The actor is currently shooting for a web-series, a thriller, in Mumbai. Later, this year, he will be part of Saina Nehwal’s biopic where he plays her (Parineeti Chopra) father with actor Meghna Malik as his wife.