Surya Vasishta’s oeuvre has been as diverse as it is interesting. Known for films like U Turn, Lucia, Badmaash, and more recently Gantumoote and Shivaji Surathkal, the actor-director has a strong stage presence too. He had been part of Antharanga theatre and has also featured in the play Chitraa – A Tale of Love. In his new directorial venture, Surya is collaborating with artistes Shatarupa Bhattacharyya, Archana Mittal, Anshulika Kapoor and Maulik Pandey. In the latest chapter of #ConversationsWithBangaloreTimes, he talks about Dwi and also reflects on his journey in performing arts and more. Excerpts:
Your latest project, Dwi, seems to merge poetry with cinema. Tell us more about it…
Dwi happened to me. It’s the visual representation of a piece of verse written by Maulik, which was brought to my notice by Shatarupa. Initially, I was a little hesitant to take it up for screen, mainly because it’s based on womanhood and her powers, and I was not very sure if I could do justice to it, in terms of approach and treatment. But again, these are narratives that need to be told, and the only way of doing that was by telling these stories.
Was it difficult to portray this dichotomy on screen?
The poem talks about the duality in women’s nature – she is all powerful, yet docile; she is all consuming, yet peaceful in her state of being. In the video, my attempt had been to bring in activities that would meet both the ends.
You have acted in films and theatre, and have also been behind the camera. How do you dabble in all these mediums?
I started off with theatre in 2008. Had acted in a number of English and Kannada plays. I have worked with Antharanga and had also been part of Pawan Kumar’s ACTor Productions. One thing led to the other and I became part of Shivarajkumar-starrer Thamassu as an assistant director. Storytelling being my passion, this was an amazing learning experience for me. Then, there was a bit of television in between. Apart from movies, I have also been involved in post-production work for shows. Fortunately, there have been diverse projects, most of which made a positive noise in society.
Tell us about your upcoming projects…
It’s a feature film that I had written a few years back, but things got stalled. We are hoping to start shooting for it soon again. This is a slice-of-life drama and I can’t wait to be back on the set and bring the story alive with the pool of excellent actors. Actress Sruthi Hariharan is one of the female protagonists in the yet-to-be-titled film, the lead cast of which also features Deepak Subramanya and Shweta Gupta among others.
The above article recently appeared on the Times of India here.