Exclusive: Saptarshi Maulik to bring Nandikar’s 12 Angry Men on stage

Saptarshi Maulik became a household name after he started playing Dinka in Indrani Halder’s Sreemoyee. After the show got over, Saptarshi is seen as Pokhraj in Ekka Dokka in Star Jalsha. However, the actor, who has a strong theatre background, has always maintained a strong relationship with his theatre group Nandikar. After a hiatus of a couple of years, he is back with a new production, Ek Theke Baro. Based on Henry Fonda’s 1957 film 12 Angry Men, the script of the play is adapted and translated by Nandikar’s matriarch Swatilekha Sengupta. The group will premiere the show on August 25. 

Saptarshi selected a bunch of youngsters from the group to stage the show. “Every year, a host of young theatre aspirants come to Nandikar to attend theatre workshops. During the workshop, we decided to involve them in the production. It all started when we asked them to read this script for speech training. They all loved it while training. I thought of staging the play then. Arghya Dey Sarkar, Anindita Chakraborty, and Ayon Ghosh are some of the Nandikar veterans, who are part of the show. Saptarshi will be seen as Juror #8, the character famously played by Henry Fonda. 

Saptarshi is a busy TV actor. Besides, he was seen as an imporant character in Raj Chakrabarty's film, Dharmajuddha. Talking about his time management, he said, “We did a lot of night rehearsals. Arghya assisted me. Ayon designed the set. Unlike the original content, this has several female jury members.”

Sohini Sengupta, a veteran theatre worker and a senior member of Nandikar, said, “our group started hosting workshops in 1986. Eminent actors – Debshankar Halder, Goutam Halder – used to host the workshops. That tradition continues and Ek Theke Baro is taking place out of such workshops. Reginald Rose’s 12 Angry Men is an actor’s delight. Many years ago, Nandikar staged this play for a while. Now, Saptarshi picked it up. He will be directing the play. I did not interfere this time. The youngsters are putting up whatever they can. I am sure our audience will like it.”