Saaru chhe, says Sudha

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Sanober

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Posted: 19 years ago

Sudha Chandran, better known as Ramola Sikand of the small screen, has gone the Tulsi (Smriti Z Iraani) way.

Sudha will now feature in a Gujarati play, titled Shrimatiji Samjho To Saaro, produced by Kiran Bhatt and written and directed by Imtiaz Patel. This is the same team that produced Maniben.com, which marked Smriti's entry into Gujarati theatre.

Learning the lingo

Says Patel, "Sudha has worked extremely hard on her language for this role. She does not speak Gujarati, as she is from South India, but after having stayed in Mumbai all these years, Gujarati is familiar to her. She speaks Marathi very well, she is also getting comfortable with Gujarati. Sudha has taken it up as a challenge. Acting, after all, is all about expression."

Says Chandran, "I've stay-ed in Mumbai many years, so Marathi and Gujarati are not exactly new. I hear people speak Gujarati and even manage to reply to them. I used to think Gujarati was an easy language to pick up.

But now that I have begun rehearsals, I have realised how tough it is to complete a full sentence with the right pronunciations. There is more to Gujarati than 'su chhe' and 'saaru chhe'."

The actress has taken up this assignment as she needs do something fresh. " Imtiaz-bhai has always been instru- mental in getting me to experiment and try out new avenues.

He wrote Kamaal Karte Ho Aap Bhi, the first play I ever did. When Sahara was making a spoof on Devdas, called Bewdadas, he suggested that I play the mother's role. He also wrote Zee show, Hum Paanch, so I have worked with him in this show, too."

Chandran has acted in Gujarati films, and also dubbed for them herself. "But dubbing in films is a completely different experience; you say just one word at a time. Theatre is live, there are no retakes."

Shrimatiji Samjho To Saaro opens May 21, at Nehru Centre, Worli. "It is a comedy that takes on trelationships between a mother and her son, settled in the US. It is about their culture conflict," says Patel. The cast also includes Gujarati stage regulars, Pratap Sachdev, Arya Rawal and Manish Mehta.

Sudha takes the Smriti route

Besides Kamaal Karte Ho Aap Bhi, Chandran was also seen in the Hindi play, Kohraa. On the small screen, she features in Tumhari Disha (Zee) and K Street Pali Hill (Star Plus).

When asked if she sought inspiration from Smriti Z Iraani to do Gujarati theatre, Chandran says, "Smriti is extremely talented, and great at multi-tasking. I hope I can do it as well."