Turns out Tannishtha Chatterjee who was last seen in Jalpari: The Desert Mermaid is one of the very few Bollywood actors who come from theatre background but choose not to leave it behind. The actress is currently working in a play that's set in New Delhi.
For someone who started graduated from National School of Drama and started her acting career with theatre, Tannishtha feels that the whole experience is very enriching.
She says `For me, it's very important as an actor to take out this time to do this play. Besides, Kirti Jain, the director of the play, was my teacher at NSD. So when she requested me to be part of the project, I made sure I'm able to take out some time to do this.`
Tannishtha is rehearsing these days in the Indian capital for the same. Set in the 18th century, the play is based on a Bengali author Ashapurna Devi's work and is about child-marriage. In it, a little girl gets married at the age of nine and the story follows her travails where one by one all her dreams and aspirations get squashed. The actress plays the central role of Subarnalata.
According to the actress who first got noticed in Brick Lane, playing a young girl (9) is the toughest thing about the whole experience. `It's a huge challenge to age on stage without the help of any makeup.
It's just the body language and speech pattern which one could modulate to bring about the change.` Interestingly, Tannishtha is stepping on the theatre stage in India after almost half a decade but internationally, she was last seen performing in 2010 at The Royal Opera House in London.