The opening day of the ongoing Shreeram Lagoo National Theatre Festival was no less than a treat for theatre enthusiasts from the city as two stalwarts took the stage – Naseeruddin Shah and Paresh Rawal. Their candid interaction was a masterclass for those present as the two actors reflected on acting, theatre, their journeys, influences and more.

Speaking about his approach to acting, Paresh Rawal said he believes in allowing performances to flow naturally. “I absorb and assimilate what I can. At the same time, I ensure that overthinking does not take over my performances. My acting should be easygoing,” he said.

Describing acting as a mutual pretence between performers and audiences, Rawal added, “If you slit someone’s throat with a sword on stage, the audience is not going to go to the police station and file a complaint. They know you are pretending, and they pretend to believe it.”

Shah stressed the importance of constant thought while performing. “Thought and action should be simultaneous. An actor must not stop thinking,” he said, adding that actors should remain immersed in the context of the character and what has been written.

However, Shah also had a word of caution for actors on excessive indulgence in a role. “You cannot and should not become the character,” he said.

​As the conversation unfolded, Rawal asked Shah whether he preferred to make an emotional or cerebral impact on audiences. “Of course, cerebral,” Shah replied, adding, “It is easy to make people cry with fake tears. But if audiences understand humans better after watching a performance, that’s more meaningful than somebody coming backstage crying and hugging me.”

Shah also emphasized that theatre is not about displaying one’s talent. “You don’t do plays to show off how good an actor you are. You do it to communicate the written word. Strong writing remains the foundation of good acting. If the writing is good, half the actor’s work is already done. The performances of mine that were appreciated were all well-written. Otherwise, I don’t think I would have been able to bring anything to the table,” he added.

On a concluding note, Rawal acknowledged the influence of Shah on his acting and praised him, saying, “Hamara naseeb hai ki Naseer hain.”

Nagpur: Veteran actor Nana Patekar made an emotional appeal to distressed farmers on Monday, urging those battling suicidal thoughts to reach out for help, instead of taking irreversible steps, as he reflected on the deep emotional scars left by Maharashtra's agrarian crisis. Addressing the Jal Kranti Parishad in Nagpur, Patekar, who started NAAM Foundation around a decade ago, said farmers' suffering profoundly altered his understanding of life and pushed him away from the glamour of cinema to rural communities struggling with debt, drought and uncertainty.

"Even a frog jumps to save itself when someone tries to step on it. Then imagine how deep the pain of a farmer must be when he decides to end his own life."

Patekar said he and his colleagues often tried to intervene by speaking directly to distressed farmers and encouraging them to reconsider their decisions. Reflecting on his journey into social work, he recalled how he once planned to buy a car with his savings, but changed his mind after watching a television report on farm suicides. The money, he said, was instead diverted to support affected families.

"Visits to places like Beed changed me," he said. "When you see several young widows of farmers with their children and shattered families, you realize immediate intervention is necessary."

Those experiences eventually led to expansion of Naam Foundation, which has since worked on farmer welfare, water conservation and rural development initiatives across Maharashtra and other states.

"The happiness Naam Foundation has given me is greater than all awards and money from cinema," Patekar said. The actor also spoke candidly about his personal life and career, admitting that late Marathi actor Vikram Gokhale, with whom he shared screen in the acclaimed film, Natsamrat, was "better than me in every aspect of acting".

Recalling the making of ‘Natsamrat', Patekar said the role carried enormous emotional weight and was originally conceived as a stage production before he pushed for its cinematic adaptation.

He referred to theatre veterans like Shreeram Lagoo, saying roles such as Natsamrat demanded immense psychological and physical intensity from performers.

Quoting the iconic Shakespearean line used in the film — "To be or not to be, that is the question" — Patekar said he would still love to perform a play at the Suresh Bhat Auditorium someday.

Moving away from cinema, he said he now felt disconnected from urban life. "City walls feel like coffins to me now," he said. "I feel more alive in villages."

Patekar said he wished to adopt a village in a hilly region and spend more time working directly with rural communities, particularly on water conservation and sustainable development. Coming from a modest background, he said emotional connections formed in villages carried deep personal meaning for him. "When someone in a village pats me on the back, it feels like a father's touch," he said. "We are not political parties. We do not want awards. What matters is the satisfaction on people's faces because of the work we do," he said.