Darsheel journeys from screen to stage

I definitely think so because I’ve never really had an inclination towards academics although I gave it a lot of importance — I scored above 80 per cent in both Class 10 and 12.  

I was not nervous because my perception about the performing arts has evolved over time. The thing is, I’ve begun choosing more story-based scripts. I was offered this play by Out Of The Box Productions, and it has an amazing story. The concept is new and I was given a chance to get into theatre, hence I immediately accepted it.

I play the character Akshay – he is a third year student pursuing psychology. He is weak in statistics and that is the only aspect in which I could connect with the character because I’m weak with numbers too. As a character, the person is really shy and a little stressed in life so it took me back to my student days when I used to be in a similar situation. I’ve done almost three shows now and have become attached to Akshay.

I took a lot of training from Akshay Pattnaik who’s my co-actor in the play, and from the director Murtuza Kutianawala. I had to go to Juhu every day for classes and he taught me the basics, after which I came to know that Two Adorable Losers is not just any normal stage play. This made me pretty nervous during my first show but I eventually got the hang of it. It’s all about practice and being sincere about your work. Overall, it was a pleasant experience and I didn’t feel the strain between shifting from the screen to the stage because if you’re an actor, you’ve just got it in you to perform on the stage, in a train or on the road.

We’re really close friends since there’s not a huge age difference between us. The good thing is that he’s open to and offers a lot of suggestions. He’s been doing theatres for eight years now and has his basics really sorted. Whenever I see him play Jolly — the name of his character in this play — I get inspired by him and think to myself that I’d like to be a theater actor just like him. We’ve travelled nearly all over India in the past one year, so we’ve made a lot of memories and have had fun together.

I had a lot of teachers who I was close to; they really supported me in every way possible, understood my problems and helped me with it.