Not many of us know that actor Arpan Ghoshal, a popular face on television and OTT platforms, has his
heart and soul in theatre. 2023 is a milestone year for him since he is geared up to debut in Arna Mukhopadhyay’s film Athhoi, and the theatre group Howrah Natadha, of which he is a part, turns 50. Arpan shares what is keeping him busy and what the future of theatre looks like. Excerpts:
What plans are there ahead for Natadha?
Here, we don’t have a fixed space for theatres where we can do regular plays, which is pretty common abroad. We have to depend on the availability of halls and can’t put up a show at will. This year, we are planning to perform plays every Sunday at Howrah Ramgopal Mancha. We also have plans not to make this a ticketed event where one can pay according to wish and enjoy good theatre. Theatre itself has become very marginalised in recent years. There will be very little documentation for posterity. So, we
have kept the printing or the documentary of how the theatre was done.A lot has happened in these 50 years of Howrah Natdha’s existence, and going forward, we are trying to document the work that we have done so far.
Any new productions?
We have recently produced a new play, based on Utpal Dutt’s Surya Shikar, and have named it Nakshatra Shikar, directed by Arna Mukhopadhyay. We have done only 2-3 shows in Kolkata. We are reading new plays. Hopefully, a few will be finalised in the next few months.
Tell us a little about the character you portray in Nakshatra Shikar.
This play is from the perspectives of the human side of politicians and leaders, what they think, how they behave and such. Set during the era of Samudragupta, I play his army chief. He has a lot of shades —a manly person who doesn’t understand anything other than war, lust and destruction. His only policy is to do whatever the emperor has asked him to do. He follows Samudragupta blindly. And when he falls for a girl, he doesn’t know how to express his feelings. The play sees changes in him then.