Theatre group Samahara is making waves not just with its performances, but with a bold venture in uniting avocation with vocation! Rathna Shekhar Reddy, president of the theatre group, says, “My theatre group is now hiring people on a full-time basis. As of now, I am paying the full-time members per show but we intend to pay them per month in a few months.”

With this move, Samahara will go beyond the current payment norm of only distributing profits among the troupe members. Asked why, Rathna explains: “With this, there will be more time for training and rehearsing. This will improve the overall quality of theatre. And when people ask me ‘why’, I say ‘why not’!”

Tisca Chopra, actress and theatre personality, agrees that this move could improve the quality of theatre, “There are two things that drive the world; love and money. It is true that people take up theatre for love and passion, but one can’t live on love,” she says.

Sunil Chandurkar, founder of My Theatre Cafe says: “Most of the theatre groups in the twin cities are amateur theatre groups. Hiring people on full-time basis will improve professionalism and nurture a bigger and better theatre culture.”

However, others believe that theatre should be purely driven by passion and the money should be “incidental”.

Vinay Verma, director of Sutradhar, says: “Money as a pre-condition to doing theatre is a strict no-no. It drives away the passion from an activity that is completely passion driven.”