Student's Speak

Hello Sir,

This is Vinny from Canada and I was in your 2nd London branch. Sir all I wanted to say was thank you for letting me be apart of your course. I’m sure you hear that from a lot of people but to me it truly meant a lot.

I always some how wanted to get into Indian cinema. Its hard when your living abroad and don’t have the fluency of the language. And the biggest thing for me was I really doubted myself if I can even act. I’m a very shy person in crowds, but I still wanted to this. I can’t say that after the 3 months that I am now a complete actor. But what happened in the 3 months was that I believe in myself. The 3 months taught me that I have the ability, the talent to make it in Indian cinema. I don’t care what others say, I know in my heart that I can make it now. And I couldn’t bring my self to believe that before.

I learnt a lot from the entire staff in London and Mr. Bhatia especially brought something out of me that was hidden, and I didn’t know existed in me. I was very happy with my 3 months in London. Sir I had come from Canada, and living in London was very hard for me. And the entire class and teachers knew I didn’t have much money so they all would help me with food and really took care of me. To the point where in Mumbai the caterers would bring different food for me because I had a tomato allergy. It was very special to me. I am deeply indebted to all the people in my class and the entire staff of Actor Prepares.

Sir when I watched your play, I can’t tell you how inspired I got while leaving the arena. There was so much in your play that touched me so close to home. I had tears in my eyes when you were talking about your ex-girlfriend. It reminded me of the memory exercise you made us do in the first week.

As you know sir I was wrestling for 3.5 years before I came to London. I was wrestling and I was doing real well. I wasn’t the biggest guy. But I was so good in the ring that I was wrestling every where and some of the biggest names in the wrestling world. It all lead to a tryout with the WWE in August last year. I was so excited and pumped and I felt all my hard work was going to pay off. After the tryout I really thought I was going to get signed. But was absolutely devastated when they told me that, ” I was good but not big enough, and was asked to be a referee instead of a wrestler.” That was possibly the biggest slap in the face. And I politely declined their offer. I was crushed. Guys who were no where near as good as me made it. I went back home heart broken. I felt that 3.5 years of my life had gone to waste. I have no shame in saying that I cried like a baby that night. But I hadn’t given up on my dream. That’s when I decided to pursue your school.

I still don’t know where I am headed in life, but I am very excited and what you told us before you left London, “if you don’t make it, don’t blame the world blame yourself.” Has stuck with me.

I know that I have a really tough and long road ahead of me but I am going to work very hard to make it. This is my life and my passion. I’m sorry for rambling on sir. And I guess the point of this email is once again to say thank you. Thank you to you and your school for making me believe that my dreams can come true. And that’s exactly what I am going to work towards doing, making my dreams come true.

If you have any advice or feedback on my work please let me know.

Thanks again

Vinny

To talk you through the 3 months of intense grueling incurred at Anupam Kher’s Actor Prepares or as i like to think and call it….BOOT CAMP! I can only really start at the end of the story…No this isn’t another rendition of the film Memento (the whole starting at the end thing…God i wish i was witty) but the only way I can begin to reflect on the training, is to take myself back to the end.

The point i woke up the morning, after the last day…i woke up and starred at my ceiling fan (no a/c…living on a budget) and the exact thought i had at that point was…is this really the tomorrow i feared yesterday? I finally had nothing to do! I didn’t know where to start… who should i approach? Where can i find auditions? Should i strike while the iron is still hot? Or should i recover from the 3 months of intense work i had endured? Well now looking back…the answer is simple…either way, rested or not…the waiting game, the arduous (yes i used the thesaurus…it means difficulty) begins the moment you leave…the moment you leave those classroom doors…the wait for that ‘big break’ begins. This tests both your endurance and patience.

Endurance and Patience is defiantly something i took away with me on my departure from Actor Prepares, although you never really leave ( i go back all the time). The faculty (or fuehrer’s as i like to call them) subliminally teach patience and endurance, which are the key factors of surviving or even reaching the industry… the days of walking in circles in Acting lessons, or the 8:30 am martial arts lessons give you those key assets, so even if your thinking…’not more circles!!!!’, which i admit i did too, put your heart and soul into it. I realized after leaving that not only does a character in a script have a graph…but as a individual you have a graph too… life is a screenplay… as i like to believe.

When your told practice makes perfect…what you slowly realize is, perfect practice makes perfect. I am now a year later still trying to perfect what i have learnt, so i can practice perfectly. I was lucky because i really listened, observed and am now applying. It has taken nearly one whole year for me to even start to understand even a fraction of what i learnt. I made the most common mistake whilst training and that was to try and understand everything straight away… it simply doesn’t work like that. With Gods grace i have had the opportunity to start working on the professional field…sitting on set, looking at people who you have grown up admiring and copying…you realize, you need to bring something to the table…as a individual actor, but without trying to out do, or compete with anyone. This is where something i never understood at actor prepares, finally came through. OPTIONS…CREATE OPTIONS… “how do i create options? How do i create variation?” this was a question i constantly asked…to which i was given the response… “that’s something i cant tell you…or give you….its something you need to find for yourself”. So did i find my options? The answer is yes, because i can now think of options every time i look at a scene… that panic and frustration of trying to find the options, lead you to do something the faculty at actor prepares try and drill into you from day one!…PRACTICE!

So practice… if you practice a single scene 200…300 times, eventually you will find your options. But my teachers where correct…they can maybe give you 100 variations on one line…but your individuality as a actor will give you an option to bring to the table something that no one else has thought of… allowing you to bring something individual to the front line…. to add to the magic of the actors, that you have watched and admired for years.

I started this insert not quite knowing where to start from…to reflect on my days at actor prepares is almost impossible… the great knowledge i walked away with, i am still trying to understand and everything i have learnt, i find more to think about off the back of this knowledge…this is something that i can humbly say, that i can only leave as an open book…the more i understand, the more chapters i’ll add….To Be Continued (at some point)

Kavi

Before coming to Actor Prepares, I had done several plays at college and inter-college level but was not satisfied with myself as an actor. I used to go for auditions but could not crack them. I realized that I had the acting seed in me but I don’t have the most important thing and that was confidence. Having acting talent but not having enough confidence to showcase it is the root problem most of us face today and Actor Prepares instilled that self-confidence in me. The point is very simple. Everyone can act but everyone can not act well. When the director watches the audition tape, he can make out who can act and who can act well, who is trained and who is raw. Before coming to Actor Prepares I would reach up to 55- 60 % (approximately) and I used to think I was a great actor. At that time I thought I was reaching the 100 % mark when in reality I had only reached up to 60 %. The question is ‘How did this misconception of mine get solved?’ The answer to this question is Actor Prepares. They are like an X-ray machine; they will show you the report pointing out where the problem lies. I am not saying that in 3 months, a person will become a great actor but at least he or she will get in touch with reality. One feels great living in fool’s paradise but it is only when one gets in touch with their reality; they know how good they are. Today also, I haven’t reached the 100 % mark and I know I will not reach that mark in this lifetime because there is always scope for improvement. No one can ever say that they own an art be it music, dance or acting. Yes one can master an art but they can’t own it. Thanks to Actor Prepares my journey towards the 100 % mark has begun and I will always be grateful to them for this.

Mark

I have been affiliated with Actor Prepares for over a year and a half now and it has been a wonderful journey. I had first approached Mr Kher with a feature film script, along with my co- writer and one day we started talking about how I had assisted as a choreographer in a couple of films and there I was teaching the weekend batch at school.

Having been the worlds most notorious student, I thought I would never enjoy teaching. However as days went by I loved the experience. Soon I was teaching the part time and full time students. It was a great experience. I had grown so much as a person and it was fantastic to be in the company of someone who has dedicated his life to the art and craft of acting.

The reason I had started assisting as a choreographer and had started writing scripts was to be able to become an actor one day.
So I went up to Kher Sir and requested him to give me admission as an acting student.

Learning acting from the faculty at Actor Prepares was the best experience of my life. I found myself growing so much as a person as well. I will never forget some things that I learnt there- honesty, belief, exploring, giving your 100 percent, being honest with yourself and your work. It is a grueling task to turn from a common person to an actor and soon simple words like honesty and hard work and 100 percent have a whole new meaning…

However now when I look back to everything that we learnt there and how much I love every single minute when I get to act, I feel very grateful to Mr Kher for giving me a chance. And I would like to say to whoever wants to learn acting that it is entirely up to you to take that step everyday, wherever you learn it from. You need to love acting enough..

I would like to speak about one experience when I was at school. We watched Maine Gandhi Ko Nahi Mara in our film appreciation class. I had not seen the film before ( pl excuse me on that one Mr Kher)and when I saw it, I thought it was a great film and was glad that I hadn’t seen it before.. The next day Mr Kher came in to take class and he spoke about the film and how he prepared for the role and how the director did some of his research and being a student of psychology and acting, that class was just an amazing experience. It motivated me as an actor, as a writer and as a person too.

Also I have met a lot of amazing and interesting people here – one has to agree when people say actors make the weirdest and most fun set of people on earth.

Shivangi