| Rana is a Mumbai based Dastango. He is a popular sought after actor/model in the advertisement industry. Rana Pratap Senger started his theatre career as a performer in the traditional Ramleela. After working there for many years he came to the mainstream theatre and worked with several theatre groups in Madhya Pradesh before joining the legendary Habib Tanvir's Naya Theatre. Over the last ten years, he has been part of some of the most important and historic productions of Naya Theatre including Charandas Chor and Agra Bazar. Rana also has several films and ad films to his credit including the ongoing hit series of Cadbury's. Rana has been performing Dastangoi since 2010 and has over a hundred and twenty shows to his credit. He lives and works in Mumbai. An accomplished theatre actor, Rana is an active member of team Dastangoi and performs Dastans in Mumbai. Rana has successfully performed ‘Dastan-e-Sedition’ with his partner Rajesh Kumar. “Traditionally, Dastans are make believe so Dastangoi tests your ability to come up with stories spontaneously and for that you need to know the language really well. For instance, if the characters are in a jungle, then the jungle can be described for more than half an hour or if they’re in a bazaar then it can be described down to every minute detail.” Dastans Dastan-e-Amir Hamza: Based on the exploits of Amir Hamza, the warrior hero, and adventurer. Dastan-e-sedition: A hilarious take on politics and media. |
It questions our notions of development and progresses through the character of Amar, a renowned trickster. “At the thought level, we have improved. Zabaan bhi saaf hui hai. Now we’re part of something that’s not done anywhere else in the world. I’m proud of the fact that I am part of the revival and development of a tradition,” Rana says. Although over the past two years, their Urdu has improved considerably, language continues to be another big challenge Rana and his partner Rajesh face. Moreover, with rising interest in technological forms of entertainment, the art of storytelling has diminished. But Dastangoi has revived not only the Urdu language but the art of storytelling as well, Rana points out. If I was as rich as the Ambanis, I would only perform dastans all my life. I would perform every day. Maybe I would perform every word that has been written on those 46,000 pages. |
