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Through the prism

Scripting success Umesh Padalkar

An M.S. in Robotics from the New Jersey Institute of Technology did not deter Umesh Padalkar from becoming a celluloid director. Studying in New Jersey, he would travel to Manhattan every weekend with his camera, getting away from his studies. The da y he got his degree, he left America for India.

He’d one goal that was to script and direct. While he started out as a production controller, he made his niche directing Kagaar, a thriller television serial and later yet another soap Dhadkan.

Padalkar is in the Capital for the ongoing Chameleon Actor Advanced Acting Skills Training Workshop, organised by the Actor Factor Theatre Society. With television serials and commercials to his credit, he is here to familiarise participants of the workshop with acting to the camera. He says, “Hopefully I can give an understanding of what an actor can do in front of a camera.”

Are television and film more a director’s medium than an actor’s medium? He believes that intrinsically the principles of acting are the same, be it in theatre or film, but the execution varies. “I don’t think there are different types of acting. A smile is a smile after all,” he asserts, adding, “But in a film a director has far more devices to make that communication.” If an actor is found wanting in film, it’s easier for the director to make up for the shortfalls. In theatre the possibilities are limited. “An actor has the same tools, he needs to understand those tools,” he reasons.

Having taken a break from television for a while, Padalkar is currently involved in a feature film Blood Money with Golden Gate Creation, USA. He will be directing the script that he has written, which revolves around what terrorism will be in the future. He explains, “In the future it could be financial terrorism. Today itself we are seeing that the terrorist is the educated engineer and not only the illiterate unemployed youth – that is far more dangerous.”

While he has previously immersed himself in the direction of television serials, he was disappointed with the scenario. “I tried to tell people let’s spend more time with the script. But no one seemed interested.” Recently, when he got a call from “the Yash Raj people”, he was taken aback.

They asked him to write 26 one-hour episodes for a series. Unwilling to give more details, he reveals that while he’ll be scripting it, he is not keen to direct it.

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