Thespo’s lifetime award

During his five-decade-long association with theater Sam Kerawalla’s real pleasure came from working backstage. But on December 14, 2008 the spotlight was trained on the 77-year-old when he was presented Thespo’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Bombay, reported The Indian Express (IE) on December 15, 2008.

Thespo, an annual youth theater festival conceived in 1999 by Alyque Padamsee of the Theatre Group, along with Pearl Padamsee, Gerson da Cunha and Ebrahim Alkazi, aims to recognize, encourage and showcase India’s best youth theater talent and to provide guidance and training to future stars, reveals its website. It has grown from a one-evening event to a weeklong multi-city celebration of the best youth theater India has to offer. Efficiently run by Q Theatre Productions (QTP), Thespo has carved a niche for itself in the annual program of big cultural activities in Bombay.

Sam Kerawalla: chose to remain backstage

Most of Kerawalla’s time was spent in dabbling in all aspects of stagecraft — acting, direction, stage management, set and light designing. So it doesn’t come as a surprise that the theater veteran told IE: "Theater is my religion. I’ve been practicing it for all these years.” His understanding of everything related to stage also stems from association with stalwarts like Adi Marzban. He has also worked with Burjor Patel, Hosi Vasunia and Pervez Mehta, IE reports.

Kerawalla, who worked mainly for Parsi and Gujarati comedies, chose to be backstage because when he started his career, lighting didn’t enjoy as much technical support as it does today and hence offered him a challenge. Another explanation to IE, tongue firmly in cheek, was: "I wasn’t a very dynamic and handsome guy nor did I have the baritone voice.” Kerawalla’s Run for your wife, first staged in the 1970s, logged 1,000 shows and his English play Rummy game was also much appreciated. More recently Kerawalla made brief appearances in the films Munnabhai MBBS and Saa­wariya. He has also played several cameo roles like that of the priest in Puc­cini’s opera Ma­da­ma Butterfly staged in Bom­bay.

The Cusrow Baug resident received a scholarship to study theater from The Indian Academy of the Dramatic Arts and is also a life member of the Photographic Society of India, as per his bio data available on his website.