After a long and eerie uncertainty that loomed over the premises of Mumbai’s iconic Prithvi theatre, Naseeruddin Shah returned to stage as Einstein, much to the delight of theatre goers. Shah, who continues to be the theatre circuit’s mainstay, to a large extent, feels there is an undoubtedly tough time ahead for theatre in a Coronavirus world.

The 70-year-old actor says, “I fear for the existence of the large commercial spaces as well as the very small ones. But there was the plague in Shakespeare’s time, too. Theatres were shut for a year but recovered gradually. I am optimistic that’ll happen here as well. But I love being on the stage and will continue even if no one turns up.”

Shah’s propensity for being brutally honest evidently comes across as he expresses his disappointment with some of the developments that have taken place in the last few months. The actor made his debut on OTT last year with Bandish Bandits is apprehensive about the development that saw the government announce its decision to regulate the OTT space.

He says, “The I&B ministry wanting to interfere with online content is a double edged sword, we might see the same idiotic censorial guidelines that operate in movies being applied online as well.”

Shah doubts whether the move might just be a step towards an odious intent to curtail the freedom of the makers under the garb of regulation. “The intention of the I&B is actually not to limit the rampant permissiveness and obscene language on OTT but to be a watch dog for anything it perceives as ‘anti-national’ and anything these days can be branded as such — even saying that you don’t like Hindi movies,” adds the actor.

Although he ventured into the uncharted waters somewhat late, Shah’s films, nevertheless, have been the beneficiaries of OTT. And the actor does realise its numerous merits, i.e, according to him: “writers and filmmakers don’t face the pressure of casting stars or compromising their content with unnecessary songs and violence.” Yet, he remains somewhat dismissive of the fact that a completely new generation is getting to see his definitive work from the ’80’s and ’70’s. “I feel nervous about that because many of those ’70s and ’80s films were rubbish disguised as art,” he quips.