Comedy of guffaws galore
She’s an RJ who loves acting and recently directed 20 actors as part of Comedy Capsules at the Alliance Francaise
By : namita gupta
Update: 2015-06-23 00:39 GMT
She brings smiles to people’s faces with ease! While being on the mic is second nature to RJ Divya Sharda, a radio jockey with Fever 104, is also a passionate actor, theatre director, trained classical singer and dancer who likes to reach out to the audience.
The lean and energetic lass also holds a degree in law and has completed a five-year degree course from the Government Law College. We speak to her on the recent Comedy Capsules at Alliance Francaise, where she directed 20 actors who took the theatre lovers from lol to rofl moments and her other passions.
“Theatre happened to me at the end of my 12th grade, when I attended a workshop with theatre stalwart Nadira Babbar and since then I have been in love with the stage. When I was directing Comedy Capsules, I had 20 actors and it was a logistical nightmare to get them together for rehearsals but all of them gave their best, inspite of having day jobs.”
Recalling interesting experiences she had, while directing the play, she shares, “Once, I sat with one actor and made him say the word “dad” 20 times till he got the right tone and he got so overwhelmed post his stupendous performance that he ran backstage and started crying. The play was full of guffaws and once I had to scrap a scene during rehearsal, since the actors got into an endless laughing tizzy and just could not continue.”
We ask the radio manager for the station on how did radio happen to her and she espouses, “I never planned to become a radio presenter, but when private FM launched in Mumbai, I wanted to experience the medium. I was studying law at the time and was looking at doing something part time and was taken by surprise, when I was told I could do a show. I learnt radio on the job from Vera at a radio station in Mumbai. Then it was Red fm, Big fm, Fever 104 Mumbai, a small stint in Dubai as well and now here in Bengaluru. Besides that, performing on-stage has been a passion. Theatre is the most fulfilling art-form and it’s just pure passion that drives me to make time for everything that I like.”
All gung-ho about everything that she does, Divya beams, “At my age I can do it all. I used to wake up at 6 am, have rehearsals before work started at 9 and then post work continued rehearsals from 6 to 11pm, including on weekends. But it was worth it when I saw a full house with everyone laughing. I’ve also dubbed for lead characters with Pogo and Disney channels, acted in short films, given voiceovers in Hindi and English documentary films, hosted national and international live events and run a radio module at Jain College in the city.”
And that’s not all, Divya worked with nXtlyf Future Consulting Pvt. Ltd last year as the head-citizen charter in the field of innovation and leadership for an initiative called The FutureSights Project. “I trained conversation makers from four Indian states to formulate foresights on the emergence of India of the future,” she adds.