I met the “two idiots", like the ones from Aamir Khan’s super hit film, “3 Idiots”, in Mumbai's Sahara Hotel. Shiv Tandan, an Industrial and Systems Engineer from the National University of Singapore (NUS), and Vaibhav Kapatia, a Computer Engineer from Chandigarh University. Shiv is now a successful award-winning playwright, and also the director of Fistful of Rupees, the play he is bringing to Singapore’s Kalaa Utsavam 2023. Vaibhav is an award-winning actor and model.
For the uninitiated, ‘3 Idiots’ revolves around the lives of three individuals, who become friends, who land at an engineering college. The comedy-drama critiques societal and parental pressures, which lead to children taking up a not-so liked vocation, as opposed to pursuing their passion and individuality rather than conforming to expectations.
Shiv wrote Fistful of Rupees out of his own experience of moving from Singapore to Mumbai in 2015 with a clear head and the fire to make it big in tinsel town as a writer. “Kahin jaa rahee hai zindagi (I am getting somewhere in life)," he said to himself. And then reality struck!
Someone who had moved as a 15-year-old on a Singapore Airlines scholarship to one of the world's most organised places had gotten used to a certain orderliness. “I had too much of a Singaporean in me. My work ethics and values were made there.” From there, he landed in the utter chaos of Mumbai. Over a period of time, Shiv discovered joy, warmth and like-minded people with the same joie de vivre and hunger as him, amidst the “skin-deep” mayhem of Mumbai.
Fistful of Rupees is a comedic expression of his journey through the lead protagonist – Raghav. Fistful…staged for the first time in 2019 in Mumbai, in front of a crowd of 70, was literally full of “drama”, betwixt pelting rain and a raging fire. Talking about the first ever staging of the play, “We were performing in a semi-sheltered venue. Somewhere in the middle, it started pouring, we had barely come to terms with it when a fire broke out. I had to rush with a fire extinguisher.” says, Shiv.
After that baptism by flames, Fistful…has been since performed over 40 times and has won multiple awards.
In addition to Vaibhav, the cast includes Anuj Rampal, Niharika Lyra Dutt, Vidyuth Gargi and Mallika Shah. Niharika shot to national and international fame for her powerful portrayal of a feisty, upright journalist in the Amazon Prime OTT series “Paatal Lok”. More recently, earlier in October 2023, her comedy thriller “Choona” was released on Netflix, also starring Jimmy Shergill and Namit Das of A Suitable Boy and Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani fame.
Vidyuth Gargi also has experience of working on an OTT show, having worked in a “slacker sitcom”, “Die Trying” with Kenny Sebastian.
Shiv, the boy from Ambala, came to the island nation on a Singapore Airlines youth scholarship to study engineering. Bitten by the theatre bug, he took to the vocation, starting with CheckPoint theatre and never looked back, writing, directing and acting in plays and making music videos. “I was a good student, enjoyed engineering, then I found theatre, and my life went upside down. Absolutely loved it.”
A trained Hindustani classical singer who started learning at a very young age, Shiv feels he was destined for the world of arts and entertainment. Buzzing with ideas with a zest for life, Shiv is not a big fan of portraying social realism on screen or in his writing. Not surprisingly, Ted Lasso and Schitt's Creek enthral him, not Pataal Lok. “I like the writing style, which gives you hope,” says Shiv. Vaibhav agrees.
Returning to the Three Idiots references, Ted Lasso, played by Jason Sudeikis, is Rancho-on-steroids. The character is an American coach of a fictional English football team, who gives clear-headed counsel in a quirky, direct and highly amusing fashion.
Vaibhav worked for Infosys for six months, met Shiv through a common friend in 2016, and they have stuck together ever since. Vaibhav’s journey has been similar to Shiv's, who feels Mumbai shows you the mirror. If you are cut out for the city, you can see it.
As for Shiv, he is clearly headed in the right direction with web series for platforms like TVF, Pocket Aces and advertising films.
Shiv's salient work includes Google Creative Lab Australia and Griffin Theatre Company’s trans-media experiment The Next Stage (writer) and Checkpoint Theatre's The Good, the Bad and the Sholay, which he wrote and co-directed.
…Sholay was selected as one of 50 significant works as part of the SG50 celebrations and was published in Voices Clear and True: New Singapore Plays Vol 1. More recently, Shiv has written and directed And Now Live, an audio web series, and Say Cheese Grandpa!, a kids play produced by Saregama.
Shiv is also Founder of Stone Paper Stories, and continues to be an associate artist at Checkpoint Theatre, Singapore.
You can catch Fistful of Rupees during Kalaa Utsavam 2023 at the following times:
24 Nov 2023, Fri, and 25 Nov 2023, Sat, at 7.30 pm, and 26 Nov 2023, Sun, at 3 pm. You can buy the tickets by clicking on the link here.