ACTING DIRECTING & EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN

AN INSIGHT INTO THE MAKING OF ROCKETRY WITH THE AWARD-WINNING THEATREMAKER, ADVERTISING CREATIVE, ACTOR AND STORYMAKER PRASHANTH KUMAR NAIR

- NAMITA GUPTA

1. Please tell us about your growing up days. What was your dream career in your childhood days?

I grew up in the 90s, and come to think of it, I’m still growing up. I am a true blue Bangalorean, although my roots are in Kerala. I studied in one of the city’s oldest institutions St. Joseph’s Indian High School, which opened my young mind to the most diverse group of kids from varying ethnicities and lifestyles. I was a quiet, timid child and I was really, really good at blending into a crowd. And as contrary as it may seem, in hindsight, it takes a lot of creative acting to blend in. I studied to be an engineer, but never felt like I was meant to work a desk job as an engineer. Thankfully, my parents and my sibling, rock-solidly middle-class in their worldview, taught me the value of pragmatism pretty early on. The flip side to that though was their insistence in dreaming within one’s means which always struck me as a difficult thing to do. I was quite a flippant dreamer one day dreaming of being a bestselling author, and on another being a bonafide actor-director working with my absolute idol Shahrukh Khan My mom and I were his OG fans, deeply following his work right from his TV stints with Dil Darya and Fauji). See, that’s the best thing about childhood dreams, they are untainted by shame or limits or that dreaded word logic. Because lo and behold, my first little step into films had Shahrukh Khan guest appearance in the Hindi version. Kid Prashanth would be dancing in joy if I could tell him this.

2. When and how did the journey towards movies happen?