8 Powerful Lessons to Ace The Art of Acting
The lessons come from an accomplished theatre artist and a famous Bollywood actress
A few months back I was overtly fascinated with voice acting. I was watching several videos and trying to practice vocal exercises to make my voice stand out amongst others.
But in every video that spoke about voice acting, one thing was common — The art of acting. Both professions were hand in glove. I understood that if I wished to improve my chances as a voice artist I will need to work on my acting skills as well.
You know that thing about self-learners. They have the guts to take their assumptions as the only prevailing truth in this world.
— Bhavna Narula
So I started searching for youtube videos that could give me some strong tips to learn acting. In the meanwhile, one of my college groups on Whatsapp posted a link to a webinar. This zoom webinar was titled ‘’The art of acting by Rohini Hattangadi.’’
(Please note I will be addressing her as Rohini Ji, where ‘Ji’ is a way of paying respect to an elderly person in India.)
It seemed like the well itself walked towards the thirsty. I was definitely thirsty for knowledge on acting and this webinar came at the perfect time. So I attended it with a lot of excitement as Rohini Ji is a very senior actor in Bollywood who has given outstanding performances in her career.
Getting to see her speak on a topic she excels at was once in a lifetime opportunity for me. So here are some pearls of wisdom I got from the webinar that can help the aspiring actors to create a niche for themselves in their acting careers.
Rohini Ji the actress
I was a kid when I had watched some of her movies like Gandhi, Chaalbaaz, Saransh, etc. She was famous for playing negative characters in those days. But one could clearly note her screen presence was brilliant. You could never see Rohini Ji the person but only her character on screen.
She could make you hate her as well as fall in love with her with equal ease. That was the level of her acting prowess. She has won several prestigious awards as well.
The theme of the webinar
During the zoom webinar where she was invited as the guest to speak about acting, she covered various topics over a period of 90 minutes. The objective of the webinar was to get a glimpse of —
- Her experiences working with different cinemas,
- Her experience as a theatre actor,
- Her process of getting into any character,
- The preparation for the roles including the pre and the post-production,
- Her approach towards a character, and
- The contribution of other people towards shaping the character.
#Lesson 1 (The switch-off technique)
The first lesson Rohini Ji learned about acting was from her father Anant Oak who himself was a theatre director. He introduced young Rohini to the nitty-gritty of acting.
He taught her that she should never take her character backstage.
He believed that, if we do not cut ourselves off from the character once the scene is over, we can never play any other role. Therefore, the actor needs to train their minds.
The moment a scene is cut, they have to immediately detach themselves from the character and go back to being themselves.
#Lesson 2 (Dialogues)
The most sought after question in this webinar was how an actor should prepare themselves for a role? Rohini Ji gave some nice tips in this context.
She said one should practice their dialogues in different ways like clasping teeth together or keeping a pencil between the teeth and saying the dialogues. This trick would improve the clarity in one’s speech.
Another trick was you standing at one end of the auditorium or a huge ground and making your friend stand at the other end. Then practice the dialogues in a way that your lines are clearly audible to the other, keeping the emotions intact.
Also, your back facing your friend and you say the dialogues. Because Rohini Ji believed that words were the most important aspect of acting.
#Lesson 3 (Working with different languages)
If I belong to North India, my mother tongue would be Hindi. But if I were to work in the South Indian film industry, I would be expected to say dialogues in their languages like Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, etc.
It would be very challenging to prepare oneself for scenes where the dialogues were in a language you’re not at all familiar with. Since RohiniJi had worked in various industries, she had become well-versed in handling the language barriers.
Rohini Ji would hire a language coach and try to get the dialogues translated to either Hindi, English, or Marathi (her mother tongue). After the translation was done, she would read the dialogues and try to understand their meaning.
At some point, she would find words that sounded similar to words in the languages known to her.
For example, if she read a Malayalam line ‘’ Pranayathin mazhayayi nee pozhiyunnee naalil’’, at first she would not understand a thing. But then she would find words that she could make connections with. Like Pranayathin reminded her of the Hindi word ‘pranayam’ which meant breathing exercises and due to that, she could remember the entire sentence.
The above process is very tedious, time-consuming, and demands the utmost patience and dedication from the actor. Needless to say, RohiniJi had it all and could therefore make her mark in many regional cinemas as well.
#Lesson 4 (Characterization)
Rohini Ji spoke about the four pillars in the Indian performing arts —
Angika Abhinaya: Use of Body and Limbs.
Vachika Abhinaya: Use of song and rythmic patterns
Aharya Abhinaya: Use of costumes and accessories
Satvika Abhinaya: Use of emotions and voice modulations
Apart from these four pillars, an actor has the freedom to use their own life experiences to bring life to a character keeping in mind what the director wants of course.
For example, there was a scene in F.R.I.E.N.D.S. where Monica and Chandler cry when they realize they cannot have babies of their own due to some medical issues. Monica aka Courtney Cox was at the same time trying to have a baby in real life. But was unable to do so and that was hurting her.
She stated in one of her interviews that during those scenes, the emotions came out naturally as she was experiencing it in real life as well.
#Lesson 5 (Differences in industries)
When someone asked her about her experience in working with different industries like Hollywood, Bollywood, South Indian, or the Marathi industry, she said there wasn't much of a difference in acting.
The difference was in the content and their way of presentation.
Otherwise, the rest of the processes in the pre-production and the post-production stages were quite similar.
#Lesson 6 (Getting into the skin of the character)
She said to understand the character, you must first read the script thoroughly. Read until the entire script gets imprinted in your mind.
Because the script would contain all the answers you need to understand the depth of your character.
Once you start reading, you will understand why the character is doing what they're doing. The reasoning part is always the most crucial one. The actor should be clear about the ‘Why’ part and the rest will fall into place.
For example- If a character is walking a certain way then ‘why’ is she walking that way. The actor also needs to ask other questions like —
What is their background?
What is their educational qualification?
What are their life experiences?
What is their financial status?
What does their family look like?
What do they think of themselves and others around them?
How do they see different situations around them?
How do they react to such situations?
What is their perception of life?
Everything. Basically, every area they can tap by using their imagination. Once, these things are clear, it becomes a cakewalk to play a character and you are able to get into their skin — literally.
After this process, the makeup, costumes, accessories, background music, etc. just act as add ons for your screen presence.
#Lesson 7 (Characterization challenges)
Once you start working on the above process, start making a list of things that can come in your way while executing any of those points.
Example 1- You’re set to play a sports coach, who has an amazing physique and stamina. But keeping your current health status, you have none of those. So you know that physicality is something that will be a challenge and you need to start working on it.
Example 2- You have been offered the role of a sex offender, who has a dark history of sex-related crimes, including other crimes like kidnapping, physical abuse, mental abuse, torture, and murder.
But in real life, you can't even get yourself to kill a mosquito. So you know, the psychology of you and the character is going in opposite directions and you need to work to reduce the distance between them until you become one with them.
Example 3- You are playing an NRI from London and therefore you need to have a firm grip on their British accent. But you come from a vernacular medium and speaking English in normal circumstances is also an issue for you. So you know that you will need to work on your language skills.
#Lesson 8 (Tip for newcomers)
RohiniJi is well aware that today's generation has been getting into powerful acting schools like the National School of Drama in New Delhi, India amongst others.
But she reminded that, no matter how amazing your acting lessons were, you will have to keep patience for a minimum of seven years for a notable work to come your way.
If your luck favors you, then this time would lessen substantially.
My reflection on the webinar
I felt the interview got interesting only after the audiences were allowed to ask questions. The questions put up by the anchor weren't strong enough to get enough content from RohiniJi and I was quite disappointed there.
Other than that, one thing I observed is common in all the brilliant actors. They are wonderful human beings. Rohini Ji was so humble, polite, and patient throughout the interview, it was noteworthy.
She was a genuine, relaxed person with a positive outlook on life. She wasn’t trying hard to reach out to you. She was there to express and not to impress.
Being an open-minded person, she never had any inhibitions about playing any character. Even if she felt uncomfortable about doing something, say playing a male character, she would work towards that challenge and make magic happen on the big screen.
Thank you very much for reading.
