MUMBAI: Actor Sudhir Pande, who plays a pivotal role in the play Welcome Zindagi play, loves his character. The actor plays the role of Ashutosh and says that he is very relatable. “My character Ashutosh is a common man. He is like the people we see in our daily life. Like any man who goes at work, has his problems, insecurities and he lives under that pressure. I am playing a character who is pressured because of so many responsibilities on his shoulders. He gets irritated on small things but later he realizes that there is another side to life,” he says.

Ask him what his philosophy of life is, and Sudhir says, “I believe that whatever are my wishes, they should be completed. It doesn't mean that there should be any kind of materialistic achievements like money, but definitely, I want to do some things for people, and I should be able to. If I am able to do that, there my life is complete.” 

A seasoned actor, Sudhir says that it was the genre of the play that intrigued him. “I have been more involved in experimental plays, so this was a very different play from the usual plays that I have been doing. There is entertaining as well as has a bit of philosophy in it. It’s not purely entertainment, which is shown in the other plays where they simply compile jokes in the script.  This play is something really different. When I was approached for this play, I told Sanjay Jha my apprehensions and he told me that there is nothing to be worried about because this play does not have things which I would not like. When I read the play, I felt that its entertaining but with that, there is also philosophy hidden in it, so I found that really interesting,” says Sudhir, who has done more than 40 plays in his career, since his college days.

Sudhir says that while theatre is a great medium to asses an actor’s skill, it hasn’t really grown over the years. “This is a medium where actors are tested as there is no cheating here. You are performing live in front of the audience. You cannot highlight an actor with camera jugglery because whatever is there it is, it is in front of the audience. So, it’s a very challenging medium for an actor. But unfortunately, here Hindi theatre is not very commercial. By commercial I mean it couldn't provide a proper livelihood. You have to work in other mediums also and then side by side you can do theatre. If someone thinks that he or she will be dependent totally on theatre, that won't be possible. Theatre has not grown much here. After a point of time, theatre artists move on to other mediums and make their place there,” he says. The play Welcome Zindagi is produced by Sanjay Jha and Mayur Solanki and written by Sanjay Jha. Tushar  M. Joshi directed the play and Jigisha Mistry is the assistant director.  Malav Jani is the executive producer.