Zafar Karachiwala has forged a career in two tangentially opposite backgrounds. Apart from being a businessman and entrepreneur with a 108-year-old firm, Zafar has been a prolific theatre actor and producer; and a feature film and ad film actor for the last twenty-five years. He has worked with directors and producers like Saeed Mirza, Rajit Kapur, Nadir Khan, Rahul Dacunha, Alyque Padamsee, Lillete Dubey, Anurag Basu, Atul Kumar, Vikram Kapadia, Hima Devi, among others. He has had the good fortune to perform across the globe, on stages in the UK, US, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Thailand, the UAE, and Malaysia. He’s currently running theatrical shows like The long-running “Class of 84” & “One on One”.
Among the notable films he has acted in are: “A Mighty Heart” with Angelina Jolie, “Manasarovar”, “Superstar”, “Chai Pani Etc” and National Award-winning “Zakhm”, directed by Mahesh Bhatt. He has done television serials on all the prime channels like Star, Zee, Sony, etc. His TV credits include Sansaar, Palchhin, Hip Hip Hurray, among many others. He has directed school plays for various Mumbai schools and conducts theatre workshops with several schools. Zafar conducts theatre workshops for beginners as well as trained actors. And just recently, Zafar was a part of the super successful play ‘Good Mourning’, where he plays the character of Yogi. When IWMBuzz.com asked Zafar about how he balances entrepreneurship and theatre that are like poles apart, he was quoted as saying –
“It’s very difficult to juggle the two. I’ve always tried to maintain a good balance between the two professions and make sure I do at least one play a year on average. Rehearsal timings in the evenings suit me fine. And I’m happy to report that the productions I’ve worked with have been very accommodating. Where there’s a will, there’s always a way.”
When we further asked Zafar about his actor training experience and what’s the difference between training new actors vs training experienced actors, he was quoted as saying –
“Quite a huge difference. Acting is a skill that can be learned. Trained/skilled actors possess a host of tools, to fulfill character choices in their rehearsal process, which untrained actors do not possess. When approaching a workshop with either of these skill sets, it is important to take these factors into account.”