Artists Of Hoot - Shibani Bedi

Shibani Bedi is a theater artist with a gifted voice, fluidity of movements, and sharp expressions. An alumni of Miranda House, University of Delhi and Xavier’s Institute of Communication, Mumbai, she has worked as an journalist for media companies like NDTV, India Today, Hindustan Times, ScoopWhoop, and Times Internet.

She is not just a stage artist but has worked in front of cameras for movies like, Kalki Koechlin and Rajat Kapoor starrer, Matra, which was released worldwide in March, 2017. She’s also done cameos in blockbuster films like “Rang De Basanti” and “No One Killed Jessica”, and also worked in the daily soap “Kuch is Tarah”, under Balaji films. Nowadays you’ll get to see her playing a role of a maid, Prabha, for iDiva’s entertainment section called “Maid vs Millennials”. She doesn’t only act but curates content, too. In her case, she is jack of all trades and a master of them all too!

In conversation with her, we asked her about the immense love she has for art, to which she said, “Wanting to be a working actor has brought more pain that pleasure, to be honest. It’s like that toxic lover you can’t get enough of or can’t ever walk out on, despite of all their inconsistencies and recklessness. Acting to me is that toxic love which finds and calls me back when I want or need it the least. No matter how hard I try, I can never turn my back on it”.

Everything since then has mostly been an endeavour to not lose this romance she has with this craft.

Nothing is easy as it looks. There were some wakeful and reckless nights, when all she thought was about ways to swim her way through the break.

Replying to how theater has changed her life and how much this means to her, she states, “ Acting came as a magical-floating tube in my river-raft kind of life that saved me and kept me afloat in my endless abyss of self doubt and confusion. It has given me shelter and refuge, when I was on the run from being who I am, or trying to figure out my place in the scheme of things. The ability to act has given my angst, sorrow, happiness, desolation, meaninglessness, and energy, a sense of purpose and expression. It has given me the strength to say things that I might never have had the courage or the cockiness to express ”.

“Being an actor, either in front of the camera or on stage, means being bound by nothing – no present, no past, no future, no perception, no fear, no judgement, no right, no wrong, no filters. Just that one lucid moment of interpretation, or character’s perception”.

No matter the uncertainty that the nature of her work begets, which led to more insecurity than pride when it comes to sustaining things, She still chose to let this art of play pretence be my undoing over anything else. She accepted that, no matter what shit might have gone down in the past or how turbulent the journey has been that got her here. She says, “I am exactly at a place where I am destined to be”. We're more than just sure that her story is not something that majority of you would be aware of and pray that this helps you to work on your passion as well! Follow her on: Facebook: www.facebook.com/shibani.bedi/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/shibani_bedi/ Also, follow Hootenanny at: Facebook: www.facebook.com/hootenannyonline/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/hootenannyonline/