THEATRE IS REWARDING

The money is better in films and television. But in terms of acting, theatre is more rewarding, meet Krishna Bahadur Chandra, the well known stage director.

Born in Allahabad in 1930 Chandra was attached to theatres since his childhood. Because his father and grandfather all were linked with theatre, this is why his interest towards theatre grew more and more.

Chandra has not taken any formal training in the field of theatres.He believes that his father was his ultimate Guru who guided him the various skills of the stage.

Commenting on the overnight success received in today’s reality shows, Chandra says, “
I believe that is a dead art, such people are not stars in my eyes. What they do is not challenging, they have takes and retakes many times which we don’t do.”

To pass his free time Chandra goes to watch plays and read drama related books. The director is amongst the founder members of theatre groups like ManchKriti and Sanket.

The actor also had his expertise in film direction. He has assisted director Kedar Sharma for movies like Shokhiyan, Sapna and Nadaan.

The director who has more than 66 years of experience in theatres has done some very famous plays like Maati Jaagi Re,Vijayyatra,Andhera Ujala,Shak,,Hamidabai Ki Khothi and Daiyre which has had more than 2500 shows.

He is a big fan of the legendary actors Prithvi Raj Kapoor and Motilal and Baanware Nain his favorite movie.

Talking about his unfulfilled aspiration, “ Chandra says I was doing a play Ek Masiha Ki Maut, which was more techno-based, and was very unsuccessful because of power grid failure and which he couldn’t repeat too because the play had only one actor J.N.Chopra, who expired after some time.”

Commenting on the development of the city, Chandra says, “Lucknow could have been developed a little more if efforts would have been taken up in that way, even the tourism could have reached up to skies” he adds.

He is the recipient of awards like Shakuntalam Samman, Maharashta State Award and Sangeet Natak Academy Award.