One on One at Times Chennai Fest

Shernaz Patel describes One on One as a collection of short speeches centered on the potpourri of people and situations that makes up modern India.
The actress, a name to be reckoned with in the theatrical circuit, had more recently endeared herself to movie audiences with her role in Guzaarish. Performing in this play which follows the 10-minute monologue format, she has high hopes for the show in Chennai today, as tells us, “We’ve had a brilliant run so far, with about 60 performances across the country.At a time when attention spans are waning, we’ve attempted something topical, which audiences can both laugh and think about. And touchwood, they’ve responded favourably.”
Giving us an insight to the process which brought about this labour of love, Shernaz explains, “One of the key challenges at the inception stage was finding the right playwrights and piecing the elements together. Each of the pieces talks about the experience of being someone or something in India. One might even relate to a certain segment more than the other, purely depending on where he or she comes from. For instance, an individual who hails from a small town could relate well to the monologue which chronicles the dreams of such people who find themselves in a big city, very much like Chennai. Similarly, someone who has travelled on the Sea Link in Mumbai would relate to the allegories that surface in these parts of the play.”
Shernaz is of the opinion that it’s this very multi-faceted nature of the play that would strike a chord with Indian audiences. She remarks, “These days, we live in a multicultural society. The Hindi monologues have been appreciated as much as their English counterparts, wherever we took stage.”
Working with theatre stalwarts like Rajit Kapoor, Rahul da Cunha and ‘Bugs’ Bhargava Krishna on this venture is its own creative high as Shernaz reveals, “Theatre is an art form we’ve all chosen to be a part of. The amount of hard work that goes into every production, speaks volumes about how intrinsic it is to our being.”
On a personal note, when asked if Shernaz still gets the occasional audience member who walks up to her and raves about the 90s babycare ad that made her a household name, she laughs it off saying, “Not really. These days people just remember me for my work in theatre and movies. But then, that ad was truly unforgettable, thanks to Gulzar and the team that helped it make such a profound impact on the public’s mind.”