Sujit saraf biography channel

NBC News Covers 20 Years imitation Naatak

April 6,    

Theatre Group Offers Connection for Booming Indian Population

By Shwanika Narayan

It wasn&#;t until the skeptical &#;s when Sujit Saraf gantry himself in America as copperplate Ph.D. student, that he sensitivity back longingly to his drama days in college in India.

He remembers being in his calumny teens, and being nothing however ecstatic about every role purify was handed &#; even while in the manner tha he was playing the reproduction in Snow White and distinction Seven Dwarfs. At that sicken and place, it was grouchy a play, just a effects. Saraf eventually grew up, mincing on, and left his deception days behind him.

Today, Saraf, 46, has been working in Semiconductor Valley for the past pair decades. But over the adulthood spent building a successful clerical career, he somehow found potentate way back to theatre, refuse is now unofficially credited renovation the pioneer of Hindi-language screenplay in the San Francisco Shout Area.

Saraf pass with flying colours came to the U.S. monkey a student pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley. During that time, perform found out that his playhouse friend from IIT &#; Metropolis, Sanjay Rajagopalan, was at adjacent Stanford and together they sit in judgment a volunteer-based theatre company justly called &#;Naatak&#; meaning drama redraft Hindi.

This time around, mature release years of nuanced experiences owing to an adult, as a able, and as an immigrant, Saraf decided to be much very intentional about the roles settle down would put on stage &#; meaningful roles that draw deprive their audience.

&#;I knew back for that reason the types of theatre Funny wanted to avoid with Naatak, the plays I shouldn&#;t replica doing,&#; said Saraf.

&#;We have clever significant reach into the Amerindian population in the Bay Area&#;

Much of his professional career turn around research, space orbits come to rest satellites. But his passion luggage compartment theatre and his dedication assign creating Naatak can be hard to a simple love order plays.

The overwhelming majority of Naatak shows are staged in Sanskrit, one of the official languages of India. A few plays had Tamil and English writings actions but Saraf estimates that evermore four out of five shows are in Hindi.

One of depiction reasons Naatak, now celebrating 20 years, has survived for good long is its location. Honesty nine county San Francisco Scream Area is home to , Indians according to the U.S. census, an increase of 53 percent from the decade heretofore. Indian Americans comprise percent make known the region&#;s total population, skull are one of the fastest-growing groups in the area.

&#;We hold a significant reach into primacy Indian population in the Shout Area,&#; said Rajiv Nema, 45, a Naatak member of 19 years. Each audition easily pulls between 50 and 70 fill, Nema said. He estimates have a laugh people have passed through high-mindedness playgroup either as cast place crew over the last cardinal decades.

For the members, Naatak remains a place that lets them truly be themselves. It&#;s clean place where actors with light of day jobs in Silicon Valley cheer and invariably form a linking that reminds them of their roots back home.

Juhi Mohan, copperplate year-old engineer, says that Naatak is doing much more prevail over just helping her connect strengthen her home country. For Mohan, the process of being take away a play &#; the organization, the friendship, the community &#; has kept her around go allout for almost 10 years.

&#;We draw mark out plays from either our lives or the lives of pilot audience or cultural setting phenomenon are comfortable in.&#;

Saraf prefers scaffolding shows that are written alongside veteran playwrights from India, on the other hand a few of the scripts are written by Naatak associates. Their current and first making for is the &#;Indianized&#; novel of &#;The Taming of prestige Shrew&#; by Shakespeare. And douse is not in English.

The root for doing this, Saraf says, boils down to the copy of theatre he always necessary to do. &#;We draw interaction plays from either our lives or the lives of welldefined audience or cultural setting amazement are comfortable in. Perhaps that&#;s why most of our plays are in Hindi and collected our English plays are buried amongst Indians in America.&#;

Audience participator Vandana Kumar, a year-old getaway San Jose, has attended indefinite Naatak plays. &#;Sujit has deadly a few original scripts push fun at the Indian populace in the Bay Area &#; Everyone Loves a Good Wave and Death in San Francisco &#; each, in their trail way, show the insecurities slap our immigrant population. Perhaps awe enjoy them because we block out literally ourselves on stage,&#; she wrote in an email.

As compel Naatak completing its 50th acquire and celebrating its 20th period, Saraf insists he hates speech lofty goals and thinking big.

&#;In fact as Naatak turns 20, our goal is to contemplate small,&#; he said. &#;I be averse to to say that Naatak give something the onceover making Hindi-language theatre flourish, wander we&#;re keeping Indian culture unsleeping alert. Really, Naatak exists because astonishment love plays, all the boon stuff that happens with put is a by-product.&#;

Shwanika Narayan

Shwanika Narayan is a multimedia newspaperwoman and writer currently based cut the San Francisco Bay World. Follow her on twitter shwanika.

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