It is important to have a difference of opinion: Suvrat Joshi

Actor Suvrat Joshi has an interesting weekend ahead. The Party actor will be speaking at the sixth session of Kaandrushti, an initiative by Natak Company. The topic of discussion is ‘Art and Thinking — What do they have to do with each other?’. While it may sound too deep, or confusing for many, the actor assures that it is an open session for people from all walks to attend and participate in.

Suvrat shares that it is going to be an improvised dialogue that will include lessons from his journey so far. Vaibhav Abhnave, playwright, theatre director, and film-maker will be accompanying him for the same. “I have been lucky to have experiences in different work cultures, forms of theatre and more through my years of training. Be it at National School of Drama, or working with Adil sir (Hussain, actor) or with spiritual guru Dilip Shankar, through all of it, I have confronted the issues we face as artistes,” he says.

Any form of art goes through its share of problems, similarly, artistes face issues while doing theatre. They have to constantly revamp themselves again and again. “We will be looking at ways way of addressing issues in front of us an artiste. Infrastructure is one of our main concerns, however, if we end up solving that, then what next? Are we in sync with the contemporary world? For example, stalwarts like Vijay Tendulkar and Vijaya Mehta were upbeat with changes. So, our attempt is to bring together artists from all forms and create a slightly better world,” he says.

On the topic of art and thinking, Suvrat adds that generally people don’t like that artistes are vocal about things other than creativity. “We are human, and it is possible for us to think about things other than art. But, when we mention things that are philosophical or social, people think we should refrain from being vocal. This is not about freedom of speech. It is about confining our thoughts.It is important to have a difference of opinion,” he explains.

Suvrat finds it funny when people ask artistes to be quiet. He says, “It is a bit of a double standard. If you are okay with common people commenting on sports and politics, an artiste should not be confined. A human essentially is a thinking person. Whether you want to pursue or choose a thought is voluntary but the process of thinking is involuntary.”

On fellow speaker, Vaibhav, Suvrat adds that he is an old friend and an interesting personality. With a political science background Vaibhav will bring something new to the table. “Honestly, it will be a jamming session. We will be throwing questions and sharing experiences. It is an informal discussion, where everyone can contribute,” he says.

He adds that we as individuals don’t have dialogues any more, we need to have more platforms that bring together people to jam and discuss.The session will be held on June 23 at Aksharnandan School, SB road, at 6pm.