World Theatre Day: Ayushmann Khurrana says, ‘street theatre set my foundation to become a fearless performer’

Ayushmann Khurrana feels street theatre played an important hand in shaping the artist he is today. Ayushmann did theater for five years. During his school days he has also done several plays at the Gaiety Theater in Shimla. He was also the founding member of two active theatre groups in Chandigarh.

On World Theatre Day today, Ayushmann says, “My tryst with acting started with street theatre and it made me hugely confident about the fact that I could entertain people with my skills. Street theatre actually set my foundation to become a fearless performer. I became not afraid to take risks and I’m hugely grateful for this because it has shaped who I have become today.”

“Theatre, to me, can be introspective, critical about society and what we are becoming and also serve as a gateway to fantasise about a world that doesn’t exist. I have learnt so much from theatre because it challenges you to push your boundaries so that you can entertain and engage with audiences in a much deeper and interactive manner. I have taken my learnings from doing theatre and tried to emulate them for my on-screen performances and choice of scripts,” he adds.

As per Ayushmann, theater taught him to shed his inhibitions which has been evident in his selection of roles.

He says, “Theatre can be a boundless form of self-expression and I realised back then that if I had to become a good artiste, I will need to constantly push myself to shed my inhibitions and pick projects that challenge my notion of how acting should be. I have enormous respect for theatre and theatre actors and whenever I get a chance, I try to make time to watch great performances and productions.”