ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE FOR NASEERUDDIN SHAH: DEVOTES MAXIMUM ENERGIES TO THEATRE

Naseeruddin Shah's versatility may have traversed many paths to create a distinct identity both for himself as an actor and for Indian cinema but it is the stage --his first love -- that always beckons him.

For more than three decades he strode with ease in both parallel and mainstream cinema, narrowing the distinction between the two, winning awards and accolades with aplomb but his heart was always in the theatre.

Shah now wants to devote his maximum energies to theatre though acting in films will continue but not with the same degree of priority.

He along with his friend Benjamin Gilani had set up the theatre group 'Motley' in 1979 with just four actors, doing plays in English with Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot being their first production.

"Initially, we did plays only in English because to us English is as Indian as any other Indian language. However, later, when we wanted to do plays in Hindi, we found that there very few good plays in the language with playwrights unwilling to write for the stage," Shah said.

In Hindi, the theatre died out with the advent of the talkies with all good playwrights turning into scriptwriters and there was a sudden vacuum with no original playwrights.

On the other hand, other genre of Hindi and Urdu literature like the short stories was very rich and so "we decided to adapt stories for the theatre."

PLEASE DON'T CALL US BOLLYWOOD ACTORS, CALL US INDIAN ACTORS: OM PURI AND NASEERUDDIN SHAH TELL THE ENGLISH

Hardly a week after Amitabh Bachchan has said that he would prefer to call Bollywood the Hindi film industry, rather than Bollywood, two of India's two versatile actors Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri have vehemently too have protested the use of the term 'Bollywood' to describe the Indian film industry, saying it was perceived to be "derogatory" and "humiliating".

Both the award-winning actors, who would turn 57 this year, were speaking at a function 'Life and Times in Indian Cinema' at the Nehru Centre in London organised by the UK-based film organisation India-EU Film Initiative, to honour them.

Lord Meghnad Desai, renowned economist and film buff, honoured Shah and Puri with Roman Atticus trophies. Jagmohan Mundhra, noted film director, presided over the function which was a packed gathering.

Attacking the western media for calling them 'Bollywood actors' they said Indian film industry was not happy with the term Bollywood as it was perceived to be derogatory and humiliating.

They said they hate to be called Bollywood actors. They also urged the film community to take notice of the issue. "The term Bollywood was used to mock us by the western press. And it's just an indication of our own idiocy that we still use it," said Naseeruddin Shah, a winner of several national and international awards.

Om Puri, who received an Order of British Empire(OBE) for his acting talent from the British Queen, said "Bollywood, whenever western people refer to it, they mean Hindi films, they say 'Oh those song and dance films'. So it is a derogatory term. These terms are created by media."