When Mita Vashisht mentored Atul Kulkarni at NSD
Mita Vashisht carved a niche for herself with avant-garde films helmed by Govind Nihalani, Mani Kaul and Kumar Shahani, at the beginning of her career. After graduating from National School of Drama (NSD), she became a theatre practitioner. The early 1990s saw her dabbling in films and intensive theatre workshops. Reminiscing about the first time she conducted a workshop, she says, “It was to assist my teacher, Professor Mohan Maharishi, who was doing a workshop at Film and Television Institute of India in 1990. My job was to help direction students get a hang of how to handle actors.”
She was then invited to Birmingham and Leicester, UK, to host an acting workshop for amateurs as well as professional actors to mark 100 years of cinema. In 1993, she went back to her alma mater to host workshops with first-year students, including the likes of Atul Kulkarni and Nissar Khan: “They were a talented batch. It was a five-week long production oriented workshop and so, all the students had to go through the entire process of filmmaking. It was critical as it would allow them to decide whether they wanted to pursue acting, direction or any other field.”
But what proved to be a different experience for Vashisht was working with trafficked minors in a remand home. “Akshara (NGO) told me to come for a speech and distribute prizes at an award function about women who are abused. I told them that I would rather do a two-day theatre workshop with them because that would allow them to connect with the deepest parts of themselves,” says the actor.