Ahead of Sheena Chohan’s Hindi Feature Film Debut, Acclaimed Theatre Director Arvind Gaur Says Theatre Taught Her to Create Characters

Sheena Chohan is preparing for the release of Sant Tukaram, a feature film where she plays the female lead opposite Subodh Bhave, who just acted in Paani, a film produced by Priyanka Chopra. 

Sheena’s much anticipated historical role as the saint’s wife, Jijabai, has gained a lot of press attention, causing Arvind Gaur, who Sheena did five years of professional theatre in Delhi with, to come forward and comment:

 

“Sheena performed at Asmita Theatre under my direction. She acted in many stage and street plays, based on different social issues. She is dedicated, committed and passionate actress. 


But now Sheena is using her theatre acting training effectively and intelligently in cinema. She always explores the conflict and details of characters in her acting - doing lot of home work on characterisation with concentration.”

 

Sheena said: 

 

“It’s true that I used everything I learned under Arvind Gaur and my theater days on the set of my Hindi feature film Sant Tukaram but I also stayed as a blank page for my director Aditya On, who was the captain of this film. In theatre, in front of a live audience, you have no room to make a mistake – you have to have complete conviction to character, and I try to bring that same commitment on set. When working with Subodh Bhave Sir, who has done ninety films and is a master of cinematic technique, as his new, National Award Winning film for Priyanka Chopra shows – I had to create a character who is taught to all Maharashtran children in schools – so it’s triply hard because they already have her in her head. Not only did I have to use all of the techniques about researching characters that I learned from years in Arvind’s experimental and renowned theatre group, I also had to bring that living-in-the-moment spark to every scene to ensure this beloved character was in a way channeled through me.”

 

Sant Tukaram is directed by Aditya Om and produced by Purushottam Studios.

 

Last month Sheena completed dubbing for her Hollywood film Nomad, directed by Taron Lexton, which equaled the Guinness World Record for the film shot in the most countries, and had her film Amar Prem launch in the Bharat Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival, for which she has won four Best Actress Awards.

 

Last week, alongside Nikhat Khan she completed dubbing for her web-series where she plays a negative lead – Lillith, the ex-wife of Adam, who is turned evil because of his insistence of obedience to him.

 

After five years of theatre in Delhi, Sheena Chohan was launched alongside Malayalam megastar Mammootty in a film by seven time National Award Winner Jayaraj. She played the lead in two films by National Award Winner Buddhadeb Dasgupta and was nominated as Best Actress at the Dubai Film Festival where Shekhar Kapur was jury head, for her film Ant Story, which was bought by Netflix. 

 

Sheena played alongside Madhuri Dixit in the Fame Game and Kajol in The Trial.

 

Sheena is the South Asia Ambassador forhumanrights.com, where she was awarded the Human Rights Hero Award at the United Nations for spreading awareness of basic rights and equality to over 170 million people. In June 2024, she was awarded the Presidents’ award in the US, signed by President Biden for her humanitarian work.