After giving Prithvi Theatre a new lease of life, Sanjna Kapoor’s Junoon evolved out of a desire to reach theatre and the arts out to more people

Beautiful, vivacious, determined and gritty, the lady with a fire in her belly and a junoon for her art is what aptly describes this Indian theatre personality and former Indian film actress of British and Indian descent, Sanjna Kapoor.

Although she was noticed for her roles in films such as Salaam Bombay, 36 Chowringhee Lane and Hero Hiralal, she is better known for her commendable work in transforming Prithvi into a warm, inviting cultural hub and a creating a name for itself in the world theatre. She is currently involved in nurturing her two-year-old venture, “Junoon”, with an objective to create a stage for theatre by unleashing the potential of theatre and the related arts towards the making of a creative, imaginative, humane world.

LOOKING BACK: THE FAMILY LINEAGE

With theatre in her blood, considering both sides of her grandparents were involved in theatre, Sanjna Kapoor, (daughter of legendary Shashi Kapoor and late Jennifer Kendal) is today an icon of success and an inspiration to many.

“I have grown up with the tales and revelries of traveling theatre companies’ adventures, from both my grandparents traveling companies —Prithvi Theatres (named after her famous grandfather, Prithviraj Kapoor) and Shakespeareana. Shakespeare’s plays were my bedtime stories. Hence, my love for theatre was much stronger than cinema,” she says. She was also greatly influenced by Geoffrey Kendal, her maternal grandfather, whom she lovingly describes as her “all time hero”. Kendal lived life on his own terms, and close to his love and passion — his wife and theatre. He dedicated his life to being an actor-manager of his own theatre company, enchanting audiences with the magic of Shakespeare and modern classics across the world.

According to her, even though she was exposed to world cinema from an early age, she always wanted to be a part of the world of theatre. However, when the realisation came (at the age of 16), it was a rude awakening that the world she wished to belong to, did not exist anymore — the world of the traveling theatre company was almost dead.

So, she waffled between the ideas of acting in cinema or on stage, aboard or in India, before making her foray into the world of cinema with Hero Hiralal, as the lead actress. “But I soon realised that I needed training, since I simply did not know what the work of an actress entailed. And it was at Herbert Berghof Studio, New York, that clarity sank in and theatre became my complete focus,” she says.

PRITHVI: BUILDING AN ENTITY

Having been associated with Prithvi for more than two decades, Kapoor’s journey has been quite a memorable and enriching one. While initially, she began working at Prithvi with Kunal Kapoor and Feroz Khan, she later went on to become the director of the Prithvi Festival. She initiated programmes such as Summertime, the Prithvi Art Gallery, Prithvi Players and so on, during her tenure.

All the initiatives were provoked by the need to create a vibrant space that inspired a professional approach to theatre, both by the practitioner and the discerning audience. The need to be different and innovative, yet produce quality work, was the foremost criteria. There was also a lot of emphasis on interaction with the world theatre and exchange of ideas on sustainability of theatre in today’s society.

“One of the biggest questions that always bothered me was why has Prithvi not inspired hundreds of similar Prithvi-like theatres across the country, if it is such an amazingly wonderful space? I still struggle with this question,” she says, adding how the economic model not being tenable could be a reason. The other was that it is still looked upon as a family institution. Kapoor’s years of working at Prithvi taught her that another financial model had to be found and a more long-lasting institutional set up that allows it to live on beyond the “family”. “The legacy will always remain. But the institution needs to, too,” she says.

LEAVING PRITHVI AND FOUNDING JUNOON

At one time for an outsider, Prithvi and Sanjna were synonymous to each other. So, her leaving Prithvi came as a shock to many.

She says “Over 21 years, I believe that I had done what I believed needed to be done at Prithvi, and to make any further change, the larger ecosystem needed to change. So Junoon was a natural progression.”

Junoon is the brainchild of Sanjna Kapoor and Sameera Iyengar (an MIT graduate with a PhD in theatre from the University of Chicago), who have been working together since 2002. It evolved out of their desire to reach theatre and the arts out to more people. They also found people with similar beliefs and who saw value in this dream. Today, the Junoon team is a strong mix of people from within the theatre world, and professionals “committed to the idea that arts and theatre have to be seeded and nurtured across India”. According to Kapoor, “I was fortunate that Sameera was dreaming up similar dreams, independent of mine. So the coming together of both of us to found Junoon was natural. And as good fortune would have it, three wonderful people came on board too — Ayaz Ansari, Swati Apte and Satyam Viswanathan — our core team.”

Junoon has come out of a belief that the arts are integral to a healthy society and that in a country like India where there is currently no overall articulated vision, policy or practices to unleash this power of the arts for society, private players have to take on this responsibility for the collective social benefit. As Kapoor puts it, “It’s been an amazing journey. Tough, but exhilarating and utterly fulfilling!” adding how she has also had to learn a great deal on the way. Junoon is a social enterprise that believes in the transformative power of theatre and performing arts. It creates platforms to connect performers, artistes, scientist and the audience with each other. The team does this in multiple ways, seeding deep-rooted relationships and impact. “We are curators that design these unique engagements be it with children in their schools, corporates at their work place, audiences across urban spaces or performers. We are building an institution that has to live beyond us,” she says.

KEEPING THE JUNOON ALIVE

Responding to the query whether the public or the critics expect too much from her, Kapoor says what anyone thought of her has never been an issue for her. “I have no idea what people or my critics expected of me. I guess I was fortunate to be able to lead my life doing things I loved and inspired me, and that were ignited by my junoon! Of course, it took time to find it!” she laughs. Over the years, Kapoor has realised her ambition was never to become famous. “Having come from a family of famous people, I saw how fame impacted one’s life and this was never an attraction for me. However, I did and still have ambitions for theatre. I want to impact the way theatre is perceived, the way theatre is done and the role theatre can have in our lives today.” Kapoor’s initiative has been applauded and appreciated by artists as well as by people who love arts. “I think this came to me from both my grandparents, who were a mix of crusaders taking their art to the masses, social entrepreneurs believing in the impact their theatre can have on society and believers in the magic of the sheer love and delight of working with their faithful band of travelers across this magnificent country of ours! My paternal grandfather Prithviraj Kapoor’s theatre Prithvi Theatre’s motto was ‘Kala Desh ki Seva Mien’. That says it all!”