“To me, acting is about being truthful more than anything else.” – Ira Dubey
The super cute and talented Ira Dubey recently grabbed attention with her role in Dear Zindagi. We present Ira Dubey sharing her past, present and future plans with us.
Ira has worked in feature films, theatre as well as TV. Ira shared, her experience on the difference of the working style “Well, as an actor I feel if you want to hone your craft you must do as many mediums as you can. The theatre is an actor’s medium and film is more of a director’s medium. It gives a chance to an actor to use all the tools an actor possesses. Television, I have never really done fiction of television I have only done non-fiction, I’ve been a film critic on a TV Show, an anchor on TV Show things like that. Why I say theatre is an actor’s medium because you know what happens you rehearse for 3 months, of course, there is a director, he is the creative head, he has a vision, but when you are on stage it’s the actor and the audience! So I feel both are very exciting mediums and you have to use different skills and tools in both mediums.
About her background and inspiration from mother Lillete Dubey, “I don’t think I had much of a choice. My mom likes to say that theatre and acting came to us by ‘osmosis’, through our blood. It’s that age old debate that how much of it has come from the environment and how much from the genes, basically nature vs nurture. But in my case, I feel it was the combination of both, so some of it has been in my genes the talent and skills, my mother, my mother’s sister and my father they all possessed at the same time I was brought up in an environment where I was always around the stage. So you know I decided to study it and then there was no looking back!” shared Ira.
On the idea of being a director’s actor, Ira said, “My philosophy has been such that I put my full faith in the director because they can see the whole thing, the larger picture. You have to trust, have to just go with pure trust.”
“Since your director has faith in you then you are able to bring your best and be free of any other constraints you may have. To me, acting is about being truthful more than anything else. But at the same time as an actor on stage, the audience is everything, without the audience you are nothing! Peter Brook one of the most famous director, used to always say “audience, text and the actor are the three things that create theatre.” So, without the audience we are nothing,” she added.
Having worked with Alia, Sonam and Gauri Shinde, the experience must have been incredible. “It’s been a learning. Sonam is a wonderful human being, she is extremely talented, she comes across as a Diva, I always tease her and tell her that but she is a very talented and a kind human being, and we had a blast on sets of Aisha.
Alia I think is one of the most talented actors of this generation, I feel that she is fearless, she is very spontaneous, truthful, confident actress. She has also made very smart choices as far as the films are concerned. It’s just the beginning for her, she going to be here for long and show brilliance in many more films and be a huge superstar.
Gauri is a darling person and I loved English Vinglish. When the casting team of Dear Zindagi contacted me, I was delighted. The best thing about her as a director is she very open and extremely encouraging. She is really an actor’s director. She would take out time and give the actor the kind of comfort level they require,” expressed Ira.
Lastly, on her upcoming projects, Ira told, “I have a lovely new play called the ‘Doll’s House’ in which I play the lead. And I also have a Film coming up called ‘Shehjar’ it’s an independent sort of film about a Kashmiri family that comes to Bombay. It’s like a thriller, it’s under post-production now and will be out in April. Hopefully, there will be more films in the pipeline this year. I took a long sabbatical during November, December and did my theatre work, now I am back in the groove so hopefully, there will be more things to share soon.”
We thank Ira for sharing her experience with us. We wish her a great future ahead!
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