Donning the creative hat

Candid talk

With a career spanning over 30 years in the entertainment industry and donning various hats including a director and an actor, Sita Raina is a name to reckon with.

Despite debuting with director Satyajit Ray’s Shatranj Ke Khiladi, Raina decided to vigorously pursue theatre alongside her other creative pursuits.

“Kolkata is a huge cultural cauldron in which you get exposure to so many forms of culture — dance, theatre, films. I first learned the technique of mime as a theatre form from the eminent Zarine Choudhry and then moved on to proscenium theatre.

Then, in advertising, I learnt the art of communicating effectively and went on to set up a content creation house for performing artistes,” recollects Raina on the sidelines of the recently held Bharat Nirman NGO Awards where she was felicitated with ‘Women Entrepreneur Awards 2016’. 

As a co-founder and director of her content creation production house, The Peninsula Studios, Raina is currently in the process of recording folk and classical musicians from the hinterlands. “We set it up five years ago. Musicians from the hinterlands are exceptional. Our recent project was in Punjab where we went and found 400 folk and classical musicians. Twenty of them are currently in the process of recording in our studios,” Raina tells Metrolife.

She adds, “The studio revives the romance of a traditional baithak where musicians and aficionados come together in an intimate setting to share their passion and joy formusic. It is a unique music theatre environment where live performances by quality artistes are recorded in a single take in the presence of music cognoscenti who form a part of the feel and sound of the recorded works.”

Mentioning that the selection process was long and tedious but a “worthwhile effort,” she says, “They are a bunch of talented singers who are going to be a surprise when the recordings are launched. We have just given them a break and they soon will be charting their own course.”