We were made to learn everything in theatre, not just acting : Raghubir Yadav

Rana Siddiqui Zaman | NT

Bengaluru: The actor can play a flute, even make it on his own. He can play over 12 musical instruments, sing and direct.

Winner of several National Awards and producer-director of web Series “Panchayat”, Raghubir Yadav was always keen on studies, reading best of poets and writers.

That motivated him to act and learn the creative arts. So he joined National School of Drama, Delhi, in the early 1970s.

“The best part in that four year course is, that we were taught everything, from stage craft to singing, from playing musical instruments to make them, make stage curtains, paint on them, meet stalwarts in the world of literature, poetry, music, acting, and writing. We were made to learn to listen to them, and ask questions, rehearse and act on lines given by them in the class. It was not only fun but a challenge; challenge to excel and yet elevate our weaker classmates. That’s where we learnt camaraderie from,” recalls Yadav in an interview with this correspondent. Today, he rues, everything is available on mobile, Internet, now Artificial Intelligence and Chat GPT and students are less curious to explore. Now they just read on available sources of the computer.

“I am not much of a mobile person so I have survived that onslaught quite a bit. My son teaches me these tools and I teach him to stay connected to the creative world,” he laughs. We are at a stage where artificial means have also done quite a value addition to the world of creativity. Yadav feels often these AI tools “save energy and time, but snatches capabilities to think”.

“Too much of anything is bad. It leads to misdirection. I just hope the college students do not be glued to these all the time but watch some stories from the past in not-so-popular films and documentaries. Have you seen how several new channels from abroad have come in Hindi and other regional languages in India, and they are focusing on oldies like us? Our stories, our ideas, our morals and life?”

It is, he says, because you will always need wisdom to learn and grow. Nothing not to agree about!