Dream come true to depict Sanjay Dutt's character in teleplay Vaastav, says Puru Chibber

With the cult film Vaastav: The Reality (1999), directed by Mahesh Manjhrekar, actor Sanjay Dutt picked up his first acting award playing a tortured gangster who loses his way. Zee Theatre is revisiting the film with a new dramatic adaptation starring Puru Chibber.

The actor felt honoured to step into Dutt’s shoes. “For any actor, it is a dream come true to depict the conflicted character played by Sanjay Dutt, especially because so many of us grew up watching that film multiple times," Chibber said. "I also felt fortunate to get this role because the play itself was packed with formidable actors from Marathi theatre and it was an honour to work with them."

The play, which is now available on Zee Theatre, is set in the 1980s and highlights the struggles of a lower-middle-class family in a Mumbai chawl. The Sawant family has to face many financial adversities, leading to additional moral dilemmas that threaten to tear them apart. The unthinkable happens when one of the sons resorts to a life of crime and loses his way with not a glimmer of hope in sight.

Chibber said it was important to get many details right, as the narrative is complicated and he has a complex role. “I also found the Marathi accent and diction a bit tough to nail and had to work on adopting an aggressive body language, especially in the second half,” he said. “Hopefully, I got it right and did justice to the role. My director's brief helped me a lot to go back in time when Mumbai was Bombay.”

The actor also revealed the life lessons the play holds, including the importance of living a simple and happy life, loving and caring for your parents, and avoiding impulsive actions.

“And, of course, no matter how hard the going is, you must work hard because only by choosing the right path can your story reach a happy ending and not the kind my character faces eventually,” he added.

About the teleplay format, he said, “Theatre is a familiar space for me as my mom is from the National School of Drama (NSD) and I have synergized with a company called Theater in Education (TIE) and done workshops, performed plays on stage for them. But this play was a different experience as it was being shot with three cameras like a film. I think as a team we learnt a lot from the experience. We had the satisfaction of being on a set and also performing a piece of theatre and I hope we can do more such plays in the future.”

The stage director for Vaastav is Ganesh Yadav; the staging has been directed by Attar Singh Saini and Yadav. The cast includes Mitalee Jagtap, Padmanabh Bhind and Ajay Chourey.