Think theatre is over-rated? These actors certainly didn’t think so. Here are a few icons you’ll probably recognize who started off by experiencing the Magic of Theatre. A list compiled with the help of Ashwin Gidwani Productions, will let you in on a few known and not so well known facts. Let’s start off closer to home with Bollywood.
1) Rajpal Yadav – He acted in theatre, realized he was incredibly funny and then made movies to enthrall the world.
2) Naseeruddin Shah – The gruff look and piercing stare have almost become iconic with this man.
3) Shabana Azmi – An Indian actress who typifies the intense modern theatre performer.
4) Om Puri – Indian cinema’s iconic grand old man, he’s worked for over three decades across the entire theatre world.
5) Irrfan Khan – Piercing eyes, a little madness and immense swagger; here’s a man who just cannot give a bad performance.
6) Shah Rukh Khan – His dramatic facial expressions totally belong on stage, don’t you think?
Here are a few Hollywood legends, who have rocked the stage before they hit the screens.
7) Hugh Jackman – This man can sing, pull off the grisly wolf look and survive the apocalypse. He started off with the stage though.
8) Andrew Garfield – Spidey started off by spinning webs on stage and left audience spell-‘bound’. There’s intelligent wordplay in this line, somewhere.
9) Morgan Freeman – The name says it all. Unless you know this man as god.
10) Robert Pattinson – His ex-girlfriend was the one with the lack of facial expressions, not him. This man can act!