Chennai
Rajit Kapur has been a staple in ace director Shyam Benegal’s films since the early 1990s. He has worked in quite a few commercial films, the most recent being R Balki’s Ki and Ka ; has been seen on the small screen and has a strong foothold in English theatre. The talented actor is in Chennai as part of the cast of the popular play, Class of ’84 . But till date, his name is synonymous with Doordarshan’s popular crime fiction series, Byomkesh Bakshi . Think of an Indian detective and one thinks of Rajit, clad in dhoti-kurta!
Taking us back to the era when the television series was being shot, Rajit says, “I was given complete, bound scripts for all the episodes within days (in pure Hindi). Basu da (director Basu Bhattacharya) welcomed any feedback on the language, but made it clear that discussions about the script would be closed during shooting. The entire series was shot almost like a film (not episodically), from location to location – beginning with all the scenes set in my house (in Versova, Mumbai). Ninety per cent of the shoot took place in Mumbai, the rest on the streets of Kolkata – these were exterior shots of entries and exits from various houses, where I’d be walking down streets and alleys, thoughtfully gazing at mansions and homes.” The show became a phenomenon and his character appealed to all age groups — everyone from eight to 85-year-olds. “I didn’t really have any reference. I was just told the detective was a dhoti-kurta-clad Bengali character. I followed the script and everything else fell into place organically,” he says.
After the success of Byomkesh Bakshi , Rajit hasn’t attempted anything of that scale on the small screen again. “I did a show or two. A television series is a major commitment. I’ll take something up if it’s challenging. It would also mean spending time away from theatre. So unless it’s really worth it, I won’t do it. Honestly, I can’t relate to TV today.”
Since his debut in the 1992 film, Suraj Ka Satwan Ghoda , directed by Shyam Benegal, the actor has been done myriad roles on the silver screen. But most of them have been Benegal films. Does he share a special bond with the director?
“Yes, we do. He offered me my first film. And since then, over the last two decades or so, I’ve done all his films. It’s a pleasure to be a part of his projects. He has given me such a wide variety of roles to perform that somewhere there’s a mutual trust. I now joke around with him and say, ‘Now you won’t be able to do a film without me!’. I usually can speak my heart out and he knows I always mean well,” he says. Rajit has worked in films, such as Mammo, Sardari Begum, The Making of Mahat ma, Train to Pakistan, Ghulam, Zubeidaa, Well Done Abba, Shaitaan, Kick, Roy and many more.
While he was constantly juggling theatre and films, how did his theatre production house, Rage, come about? “Rage began also at the same time when I got my first film, which was in 1992. There were seven or eight of us who loved the theatre and felt that we didn’t have enough opportunity to do theatre as youngsters. It belonged to the oldies at that time. We had certain production values that we wanted to adhere to. We just thought one fine day that ‘why don’t we just start our own group and start doing things?’ And that’s how it began,” he reminisces. Rajit has been widely appreciated for his stage performances and Class of ’84, jointly presented by Cherry Pik Ventures and Rage Productions, has been one of the most popular ones.
“The play is about friendship and everybody can relate to it. English plays have had to bear the brunt of being called ‘elitist’. But through our productions, we are trying to break this notion. They are not adaptations, but original scripts, written in the context of modern India,” he says. The play has completed more than 350 shows.
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