Pragati Mehra on World Theatre Day: Theatre is a live medium that teaches an actor to be present in the moment

Even though she hasn’t worked on stage, Pragati Mehra admires the medium. She is keen on doing theatre one day.

“Theatre is a live medium that teaches an actor to be present in the moment, and helps in skill enhancement. On stage, one does not have the benefit of camera and editing. Having said that to assume that every theatre actor is a notch above the rest is like saying every engineer out of IIT is better than engineers from other institutions and that would be preposterous,” says the actor who is currently seen in Rajan Shahi’s Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai

The advent of OTT and the pandemic has heavily impacted theatre. There is a fear among many that the art form is at risk of losing its relevance.

“Pandemic impacted films too so theatre isn’t the only medium that lost out on viewers but as things inch back to normal, so will the theatre revive itself. It’s just a matter of time,” the actor sounds positive.

Pragati has not seen anything in the past two years. The last play she saw was Moulin Rouge in Paris just before the pandemic in 2019. “I have realised I remember musicals more. Mughal-E-Azam by Firoz Abbas Khan is one such play. I also loved Moulin Rouge for its grandeur,” she shares.

Veteran theatre actors like Ashish Vidhyarthi, Shabana Azmi, Anupam Kher are still doing plays, but, according to some, most of the current actors have no interest in doing theatre. Negating the concept, Pragati adds, “That’s an assumption. In the younger lot of actors, there are many who have graduated from theatre to TV or films? Many actors who started with theatre keep going back to their roots in between their shoots. Let’s accept, theatre doesn’t pay like films or TV does. And a professional actor also aspires to make a living out of their craft.”

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