Kashish Anand - The Stage or the Theatre Is the Only Place You’ll Ever Find Me Because It Gives Me Peace & Joy (Actor, Director, Singer and Hotelier from India)

If you don’t have passion for anything I don’t think you can succeed in that field. Just follow your impulse and as Shahrukh Khan says, “Success is not a teacher, failure is the best teacher in the world as it makes you humble.”

1. Tell us about your background and journey.

I have been & brought up in New Delhi, did my schooling from Delhi Public school & Mass Communication from Amity University. I am an actor, singer, screenplay writer, content creator & hotelier. A major part of my journey has been about working in theatre for the past 12 to 13 years with many reputed theatre groups also as a member of most of them. 

As an alum of Barry Johns acting school, I am grateful for the kickstart it gave my career as I started my journey from there with the Darakht theatre group as a lead actor in a handful of plays. The journey went on from there & I got selected for plays at IIT Delhi, Akshara, LTG and Kamani. 

Recently the unfortunate covid situation gave me some time & I started designing content for online channels, social media and I clearly see an upward trend in the reach & followership. Some of the videos have even crossed millions of views. I am looking forward to growing more & make better content with exponential reach. 

2. How can one approach their career and have the confidence and belief to become an actor?

I think that there is no right approach when it comes to a creative career like acting. Follow your heart & give it your best. Just don’t quit. Be prepared to rise up even if you fall. That is the only mantra. 

I would strongly recommend education in the field so join any acting course there are some great acting schools in India or you can go for Barry Johns in fact even if you’re not an actor I would suggest everyone should do a course with Barry Johns acting school it just changes your life

Coming to a few tips to enhance learning, join any theatre/acting group work to understand the stage because theatre is an actor‘s medium. If you have a good command on the stage then probably you can go for the camera as well because cinema is directors medium.   First an actor should be good on stage and do as a as much as the stage gives you exposure and confidence to perform before a large audience. 

3. Is it financially sustainable to be a digital creator these days? 

So this is a very debatable question as everyone has their own point of you & circumstances. According to me, you should never put all your eggs in one basket. Explore as much as you want but never depend only on one option. 

4. How can someone become successful in your field/career? 

Obviously stick to the basics. Definitely get education by joining an acting school do as much practice as you can and just start making independent films, just start a camera and record yourself. Just stop having the fear of failure.

I failed initially while working in theatre but eventually succeeded. If you don’t have passion for anything I don’t think you can succeed in that field. Just follow your impulse and as Shahrukh Khan says, “Success is not a teacher, failure is the best teacher in the world as it makes you humble.”

5. How and where do you find inspiration to churn out content? 

Actually from everywhere each and every thing you have to be you always have to be aware keep your eyes and ears open every time content is actually everywhere so just start probably. I just start recording at the very moment. Content is everywhere, observe everything.

I think the best place to observe someone is a Metro station or a railway station just go sit on the platform and observe each and every person you will get thousands of video ideas in just one hour. 

6. If not this, what would you be doing?

I don’t know actually to be very honest. If I was not an actor than would I be probably a traveller or a food critic maybe. But I think I am meant to be an actor. The stage or the theatre is the only place you’ll ever find me because it gives me peace & joy. 

In fact, I am also a teacher at my acting company by the name of ‘Kashish Anand acting company’ in which we gave theatre classes to the age group 5-12 years, so I don’t think there be anything else.

7. Which is your favourite book and why?

So this is a very embarrassing thing for me to say this because being an actor I hate reading I just hate it and I have only completed two books in my life although I have read a lot of plays obviously and a lot of scripts but if you talk about books I have only completed two books in my life one was “Dongri to Dubai” that is the biopic of Dawood Ibrahim and the second book which actually is my favourite book and in fact, it changed my life is “Inner engineering” by Sadhguru. This book started my journey with meditation and attracted me towards enlightenment & manifestation. 

Kashish Anand

I’m an Actor, Director, Singer and Hotelier. With a Theatre experience of 12 years and have appeared in more than 30 plays. As a Director, I have directed many short films, theatre plays and digital comedy sketches.

I’m also trained in classical music and work as a Professional Singer. I’m the MD of Hotel Citi International New Delhi.

Interviewed by - Vanshika Jain