Set in a contemporary world, `Selfie’, an English play, is about five women from different
backgrounds who coincidentally
meet in a waiting room. They get talking and the play takes off on a beautiful
journey of their lives. Directed by Tannaz Irani and produced by Paritosh
Painter, the cast includes Dimple Shah, Shweta Gulati, Kishwer Merchant, Priya
Malik and Tannaz herself, who
is essaying the role of a 60-year-old. After nearly a decade, this is
the third play directed by Tannaz. “Earlier, I had to prove myself and convince
everyone that I could direct. But now, I am so sure of my craft and art that
it’s a given that ‘Tannaz
knows what she is doing’. I am more at ease with my
work. Everybody knows within the first few hours if the director knows what she
is all about,” says Tannaz, who is presently playing the role of Kuku
Bataliwala in &TV’s ‘Chupke Chupke’.
Speaking about the play’s all female cast, Tannaz says, “I think we were blessed to
have this cast. It is a wonderful cast and I would not like to change my girls
for anything. I had to work on the characters and we had to talk about it, had many readings, a lot of
preparations and the rehearsals were really gruelling. We did auditions for a
couple of parts. We are depicting women of different age groups and different
stages of life. The
script is very tight and we cut so much of it to make it interesting. The cast
comprises theatre and television actors who have current shows. Luckily for us,
the month we were rehearsing, none of us were working.” The play has been performed in English
and Hindi and is an adaptation of the Marathi play written by Shilpa Navelkar.
They have performed across India and in the Unites States of America.
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Tanaaz was in class VII when she first auditioned, for a Gujarati play. “I was always
fond of acting, right
from when I was six years old. When I was growing up, there were only Rekha and
Sridevi, the classic divas,
and I was in love with them. Right
now we have so many actresses. At
that time they were the only actresses and no one was close to them,”
she explains.
She loves the Goan audience as she has performed in many
plays here at Kala Academy. “I have been a part of many plays under different directors, in Goa. There was the ‘Bottoms Up Series’ by
Bharat Dabolkar and Raell
Padamsee’s ‘Mischief Mania besides numerous other plays. The Goan audience is
very receptive and they enjoy good theatre; once the performance is over, they also come backstage and give us their
feedback, which is very important,” says Tannaz.
Tanaaz reveals
that her three children play a big part in her personal and professional
life. “Zianne is 24 years old,
Zeus is 9 and Zara is 5. They come on set and they are familiar with everything
that I do; they have
seen this play nearly 3-4 times. Even though it is a play for grown-ups, they have enjoyed,
understood and relished
it. I hope they don’t become actors though because they do enough ‘nautanki’ at home,” she says with a big smile.
The SeIfWE
Lucky Contest that will be on from
May 20-30, 2017 will have Selfie
Platforms at Inox, Margao, Inox, Panjim, Mall De Goa, Porvorim, 1930 Vasco,
Vasco and Caculo Mall, Panjim. Contestants need to visit any of these venues
and click their selfies in different categories and upload the same on to the
1930 Vasco Facebook page. Winners
will get show tickets
and fantastic prizes.
‘Selfie’ will be performed on June 10, 2017 at 6:30pm at Kala Academy, Panjim. Passes for the play are available
at bookmyshow.com
