Graduation day

"I''m the Jack of all trades," is how Raageshwari once described herself. And the perky lass is now adding theatre to her long list of achievements. She debuts in The Graduate which premieres at the Jamshed Bhabha Auditorium in Mumbai next month. "Never before has a play premiered there," reveals an excited Raageshwari.
Plays were always being offered to her, she says, but she deliberately kept away."Being a singer, people assumed I would be interested. I was, but the fact that theatre takes so much time and I am always busy with live shows was a dissuading factor. Everyone knows that people are in theatre not for money but for the love of it. But this production house offered me good money and they took into consideration my dates. Moreover, I loved the part," she says.
The play is being directed by Divya Palat and also has Aditya Hitkari and Zeenat Aman in the line-up. Throwing light on the story-line, Raageshwari says, "It''s very fast-paced. It''s based on the Dustin Hoffman movie The Graduate, and I''m playing Zeenat''s daughter. The fun part is that the entire character is so much like me — the girl is shy, loves art, museum, music, children, people and is very humble... In that sense, I don''t have to relate to her. I just have to be me. Every girl would want to be this person." Commenting on Zeenat''s role she says, "Zeenat has a dynamic, hilarious role."
Another first for this production is that the sets are being ''flown up'' (in between scenes, the sets will zoom in and out of focus, cutting down on manual moving). "They are spending lakhs of rupees on the sets and there will be no waste of time between scenes," says the actress.
Finally, considering she never got the time to complete her college education due to a hectic work schedule, does she plan to graduate now? "After The Graduate, I just might go in for graduation," she laughs.
martin.dsouza@timesgroup.com