Roshan Taneja - Moments of Truth: My Life with Acting

Moments of Truth

My Life with Acting

Roshan Taneja

First published in India 2017

2017 by Roshan Taneja

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Contents

koi to sood chukaye

koi to zimma ley

us inquilab ka

jo aaj tak udhaarsa hai

Kaifi Azmi

H e is the only person in the world whose feet I touch because he is my guru in the true sense of the term. A guru is a person who not only teaches you your craft, a guru is someone who teaches you how to negotiate your way through life; which values to hold dear and which bad habits to leave behind. Those who believe acting can never be taught have never met Professor Roshan Taneja.

I consider myself very fortunate to have had Professor Roshan Taneja as my teacher. He was the Head of Acting Department, Film & Television Institute of India, Poona, and I spent two valuable years from 1971-73 as his student.

I was born to parents from the theatre world. My mother Shaukat Kaifi would strap me on her back and take me to rehearsals at Prithvi Theatre. My father Kaifi Azmi was President of Indian Peoples Theatre Association the largest theatre group in the world. I imbibed a love for acting almost by a process of osmosis. Fresh out of college I decided to enroll at the Film & Television Institute of India, Poona, as a student in Acting.

It was a completely new experience. I had never lived on my own before and FTII opened a whole different world for me. International cinema such as the films of Ingmar Bergman, Godard, Kurosawa, Fellini etc. held me enthralled and changed my aesthetics forever.

And then there was Professor Roshan Taneja Sir as we called him with respect. He was a student of the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre and believed firmly in Sanford Meisners school of Method acting. His fame was legendary and I looked forward to enrolling under him.

My very first meeting with him will always remain memorable. When I entered the room for my audition, I saw him sitting at a desk both his hands capped under his chin, (a gesture we would all get familiar with) and he said in a neutral tone, Come In. His manner was not intimidating but there was something about him that unnerved me and I started forgetting my lines right in the middle of the scene I was auditioning. It was a letter I was supposedly reading from my grandmother. Unable to remember, I started making up my lines as I went along, pretending that my grandmothers hand writing was difficult to read which was why I was stumbling etc. After the audition I closed my eyes knowing that Id been caught forgetting my lines. I waited, heart in my mouth, to hear him dismiss me. Instead he smiled warmly for the first time and congratulated me for making the grade. I knew you had forgotten your lines but that you carried on undaunted, making up the lines rather than stop the scene shows that you were in the moment. And thats what matters.

I knew then that the next two years I would spend doing my Diploma in Acting, would be a very special period of my life.

Notions of acting preceed any understanding of acting. A new comer is likely to pride himself on the fact that he follows the Dilip Kumar style or the Raj Kapoor style of acting. And therein lies the first mistake. Imitative acting can pass off for mimicry not acting.

Under Taneja Sahebs tutelage we learned that the most important tools for acting are observation, imagination and concentration. Acting is not about doing, acting is about being.

To be able to act you have to first tap into yourself and find the emotional truth. It is not an external but an internal process.

An actor is her own instrument. For a sitar player to be good it would depend both on the dexterity of her fingers plus how finely tuned the sitar is. An actor has only herself. Her face, her body, her voice, her gait but most of all the ability to absorb life around you like a sponge and mine it for the benefit of the character you play. A student of acting must watch theatre and films, read books, go to art galleries, attend music concerts. It doesnt matter if you cant understand, what is important is to let yourself be opened to all aesthetic stimulae because the more you give of yourself to the character the more the character will give you back because acting is a two way process.

He was very focused on voice and diction. Sir himself speaks both English (with a bit of an American twang!) and Hindustani perfectly. For sir, the spoken word was the window to the characters world. The biggest challenge of acting is to speak previously rehearsed lines as though for the first time. Learn your lines he would say so that at the time of performance the lines dont get in the way of the emotions. I learned that all spontaneity in acting is simulated because you have to speak your lines, hit the mark, take the light, be mindful of the camera and yet allow the moment to be fresh. An actor must be able to make the audience give themselves up to the ready suspension of disbelieve.

Im not sure I understood even half of what he was saying but I found myself riveted. It was as if I had been waiting at the door and Sir had handed me the magic key to unlock a world of magic, mystery and roller coaster ride into self-discovery.

Sir noted that I was a keen student, diligent and hard-working, but whenever praise was due it was always showered on a student who was pretty average. It confused me. One day I barged into his office room without appointment and let out a litany of complaints. Do you not think I have any talent? Why dont you have a single word of praise for me ever? Why do you say Very good to the girl who deserves it the least? He let me vent my frustration, then cupped his hands below his chin and said, She needs help and encouragement. You are doing fine. If you go off track, I will tell you. I almost danced my way out of his room and it mattered little that in two years, praise rarely came my way.