Sunil Oza a rajkot based drama actor

Sunil Oza is a multidimensional personality from Rajkot to meet. He works in Rajkot Doordarshan as Production Assistant. 49 years old Sunil Oza is a soul of drama. Acting in plays is his passion.

Listen to Audio of Interview below.

[audio:suniloza.mp3]

He has acted in almost 20 plays performing various characters. His favorites ones are of Shakuni (Gandhari’s brother), Lord Krishna, Thakur (Ramkrishna Paramhans) and Sardar (Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel). On his character of Shakuni he says “Bharatbhai Yagnik asked me to paly character of Shakuni. Now character of Shakuni is of very smart person, a cheater. At first I was stunned on offer of Shakuni. But Bharatbhai clarified that he wanted Shakuni as a brother of Gandhari, who is soft by heart. This inspired me to play Shakuni’s character.”

During a play, where he was performing the character of Thakur – Ramkrishna Paramhans, another actor in drama forgot his lines but he was smart and said “Now only Thakur can answer this.”

On this Sunilbhai says “My lines were over at that time as Thakur and so I was at ease. But suddenly, this actor threw burden over me.

Now drama being different from a movie where you don’t get re-takes. I had to speak something and that to without wasting any seconds. But I don’t know what happened and I spoke for 2 and half minutes, though they were not the scripted lines. I believe that those were the lines delivered by Thakur himself. I was just a medium. It was like a spiritual experience for me.”

Sunil Oza possess a degree from National School of Drama (NSD), Delhi. He studied there for two years and completed the course. “At NSD I was ragged by seniors, but in a positive manner. It was a mind-charging experience. At first I was asked by a senior to name leading contemporary play-writers in Gujarat. Now I didn’t know about this and I was speechless for the moment. Senior was shocked and agitated knowing about my poor knowledge of play conditions in Gujarat where I belonged to. He then asked me to name few famous Gujarati songs, again I was speechless. I was truly under a severe shock and shameful mental condition. But I was inspired by this.” says Mr. Oza. “But today no one asks me about Gujarati songs when I know lyrics of 40 famous Gujarati songs“, he adds with a laugh.

At NSD, he was also to witness an experience that he still remembers as it is and while talking about it, he gets into flash back. He was asked by his seniors to perform a kiss-scene with a lady-actor in front of them. At first he was frightened. He says “even a thought of touching hands of a lady-actor was frighting for me.” And now here he was to asked to perform a kissing scene. That lady was his senior. She was in last year and Mr. Oza in first year. That lady gave him confidence and said not to worry at all and feel at ease. He says “she gave me real confidence to perform this scene“. Mr. Oza didn’t know her. But she performed that kissing scene such a way that audience felt it was a real kissing scene, while in reality their lips didn’t touch. Mr. Oza’s face was in front of audiance while that lady-actor’s face was unseen, but she made it look real. This lady was none other but Seema Biswas herself.

Seema Biswas has acted in most controversial movie Bandit Queen directed by Shekhar Kapur who has also directed Elizabeth.

Seema Biswas has played leading role in Bandit Queen. Mr. Oza feels proud to have known Seema Biswas during his acting course.

His love of drama started after watching a drama. He was inspired there by the character of a villain.

And it still is going on. He has also documented couple of documentaries for Doordarshan.

Apart from acting, he also practices ‘Alternate therapies’ such as Reiki and Ayurveda. He also practices magnet therapy and helps people come out their problems. By nature, he is a soft spoken person with clarity and weightage in his words. He loves animals too. When I went to his home, I saw few street dogs waiting outside his home. I came to know that Mr. Oza was yet to reach home. So these street dogs were waiting for him. They knew about his timings. And when he entered home, those dogs to followed him and started playing with him by moving their tales. He says “these dogs can recognize me in darkness too, as they feel my smell, and don’t bark at me at all. They want nothing but love from us.”

Mr. Oza thinks that the word ‘natak’ (play) has been highly misused by few Gujarati people. He says “While in West Bengal, bengalis take plays seriously and appreciate the good actors. While in Gujarat, only ‘family dramas’ are a hit, and mostly they are commercially produced. A drama actor is not respected as much as they are respected in other Indian states such West Bengal, Punjab and South Indian states.”

It was truly a good experience having fruitful conversation with Mr. Sunil Oza.