Bhopal. It was a couple of years ago. One day, I got a call in the afternoon, “Sir, this is Shrivardhan Trivedi, the one from Sansani. I had come to Bhopal. I want to meet you.” I felt very happy to hear this. I said, “I know you, please come.” An hour later, Shrivardhan came home holding a bouquet of flowers. The face and voice of the long-haired Shrivardhan is etched in the minds of millions of TV viewers. I am also one of them. I did not know him directly, but the warmth with which he came to meet me had overwhelmed me.
That day we sat and chatted for two-three hours. The conversation was on stage but the centre of it was Shrivardhan’s journey in theatre, how his journey started from NSD and reached Sansani and how Sanyani’s journey continues. This is the first experiment in Hindi theatre when an actor coming out of NSD and doing theatre, TV and films, anchoring a crime show on a news channel, achieves such popularity and success that many do not get even while doing TV films.
Despite not having a direct acquaintance with him, I knew Shrivardhan, although I did not get a chance to come face to face with his theatre. I used to get information about him from theatre artist friends.
In Sansani, his role is that of an actor but it is acting. An acting in which one has to repeat just one line every night and it does not seem boring on any day, for years. While watching his performance at night, I would try to catch the subtleties of the variation in his acting. “Sannate ko chirti sansani, sann kar diti hai insaan ko” This one line always seemed new to me, like the improvisations done by Habib Tanvir on stage. Shrivardhan may not have worked with Habib Sahab but this one-line dialogue of his makes one feel as if he is working in Habib Sahab’s play.
Shrivardhan, a resident of tribal district Dindori, received his primary education there. Later, after doing MSc from Sagar University, Shrivardhan was selected for the post of Lieutenant. Two of his friends from there, Ashutosh Rana and Mukesh Tiwari, wanted to study at the National School of Drama to make a career in theatre. Shrivardhan was also interested in theatre. Hence, all three applied for admission in the National School of Drama and coincidentally, all three were selected there together. They did not even realize how three years passed. In 1994, after leaving NSD, like other theatre artists, Shrivardhan also went to Mumbai to explore possibilities of work. There, he met Sagar actor Govind Namdev, who had already established himself in films after leaving NSD. He advised Shrivardhan to work in the NSD repertory for some time and hone his acting skills further. He returned to Delhi in the repertory. He did theatre in the repertory for a few years and was also its head for a short time.
After NSD repertory, Shrivardhan continued his theatre career. He also worked in some films. Meanwhile, Star News wanted to start a new kind of crime show. Auditions were held for the anchor of this show but no one was liked for that role. Shrivardhan was also called for this role. He had long hair then. Star News also refused him because they wanted a contrasting handsome face as an anchor for the crime show. After a month, he was again called by Star News. As soon as he was released, he said that the role of the film, for which I had grown my hair, was over. Now I can cut my hair. By then, the thinking of the Star News people had changed. So he was forbidden from doing so and he was selected with this look. The shooting of the show was done in a hurry and the telecast of the crime show was also started from the same day.
Shrivardhan’s role in this crime show was liked so much by the audience that he became a household icon. This series which started in 2004 has been going on for the last 20 years. Meanwhile, Star News was changed to APP News. Many other changes took place but Shrivardhan’s crime show continued in the same format. Starting the show every day with the same sentence “Sannate ki chirti sansani” and maintaining it for years is a big challenge for any actor.
He is the one and only Shrivardhan who has completed this challenge in such a way that he has become the favourite of the audience of all ages. It is the unique style of his acting that even after saying this sentence every day, he does not let it get monotonous. Almost 8000 episodes of his show are about to be completed and it cannot be said when this series will stop or if it will not stop at all. I do not consider this program of his as a TV show, I consider it as his theatre. In a TV show, every moment is new. There is no scope for repetition. In theatre, there is a possibility that the same role is presented differently in every show, which Shrivardhan has been doing every day for twenty years.
I wanted to write this article on Shrivardhan only after that meeting
But for some reason or the other, it kept getting postponed. On the completion of 60 years of National School of Drama Rangmandal, preparations were made to present the play “Taj Mahal Ka Tender” which was staged here in 1998. The interesting thing was that this play was to be staged with the same artists who had played the roles in its first presentation. Shrivardhan Trivedi was also one of them. Due to giving programs on news channels 2 days a week for years, his activity in theatre had reduced a bit. In such a situation, his return to theatre with a role he had played 25 years ago in a new experiment must have been a challenging but pleasant experience. I could not see this theatrical performance in Delhi, but I found it timely to write this article with Shrivardhan’s experience.
Shrivardhan was very excited after the performance of the play “Taj Mahal Ka Tender”. He told that he had the main role in this play. Playing the same role again after a gap of almost two decades was a challenge. Moreover, due to various reasons and the busy schedules of the artists, the rehearsals could not be done systematically. The first staging of the play was done without technical rehearsals and it was very successful. After that, 4-5 more performances were done which added more tightness. This play required a lot of energy along with speaking long dialogues.
Despite all this, Shrivardhan seemed very satisfied with his and the overall performance of the play. The first performance of this play was directed by Chittaranjan Tripathi and till now this play has been performed under his direction for two decades. He had to act in the first performance which could not happen but in this latest performance he also performed. Even after 4-5 shows continuously, the audience was so enthusiastic that every show was houseful. Now there is a plan to perform this play in different cities in future. Shrivardhan says that it will not be possible to participate in every show but wherever possible as per convenience, he will try to play his role in this play.
The pressure of continuity of this show was so much on Shrivardhan that there came a time when his mother was on ventilator and he had to stay with her in Jabalpur for a month. Even then the continuity of the show was not affected and he kept shooting for this show by setting up a set in Jabalpur. This is probably the only television show in the world which runs daily for such a long time, whose anchor Shrivardhan made a world record. Presenting a show continuously for almost eight thousand days without a single day’s gap has become an unparalleled example of Shrivardhan’s worship of the stage.
Shrivardhan is completely satisfied with his experience of “Sansani”. He believes that through this show, he is fulfilling his passion for acting and is also earning a better livelihood. Along with this show which is shot every day, he will remain active in theatre as much as he gets time and opportunity. Shrivardhan, who has made an indelible mark of his acting in the news based program of the news channel, has paved a new way for other theatre artists to work. Today he has received offers to participate in many such TV programs but he wants to use the time left from ‘Sansani’ for his theatre.