Interview: When Seema Pahwa acted despite being injured and ill, Gitanjali used to perform with medicines

Seema Pahwa says- The most beautiful and heart touching theatrical experience for me was Mohan Rakesh’s play ‘Adhe Adhure’. There is a very sharp portrayal of relationships in this and I believe that such a beautiful portrayal is hardly in any other drama. Another thing that makes this play really special is that it was while working on it that Manoj (her actor husband Manoj Pahwa) and I came close and decided to get married. Another unique theatrical experience was for me for Zee Theatre’s literary anthology ‘Koi Baat Chale’.

My feet were bleeding, but I pretended – Seema Pahwa

She further said- As far as the show must go on, I was playing the lead role in a play called ‘Anaro’ and two days before the show, I had a terrible accident. I couldn’t even move my legs. There were very physical scenes in the play, in which my husband had to hit me and drag me. My wounds were too fresh for all these scenes, so my co-star Vipin Sharma asked, ‘What to do?’ I told her, you do your work like you normally do and I will take care of the rest.’ And I performed the drama in that wounded and bruised state and after it was over, my wounds started bleeding and I felt excruciating pain, later I had to take heavy pain killers.

Had lost my voice, but performed after taking medicines – Gitanjali Kulkarni

Memorable plays for me are those in which I had to go through the show must go on situation. When I was doing a Marathi play called ‘Mukkam Post Bombilwadi’. We were coming from Nashik after doing a late night show and our bus got stuck in traffic. Our show in Dadar was at 11 am and we were almost one and half hour late and still the audience was waiting for us to come. We started doing our makeup in the bus itself.

We reached the theatre, changed our costumes and went on stage to perform. During another show of the same play, my voice was completely gone. I could barely hear but I took some antibiotics and performed. The show went well. ‘Piya Behrupiya’, which you can also watch on Zee Theatre, reminds me of the time it was being staged at the Globe Theater in London. I was in the middle of singing and suddenly it started drizzling. I didn’t stop and the audience also sat through the show.