The RajaSaab actress Riddhi Kumar shares how theatre training made her more intentional and confident as an actor

Riddhi Kumar has undertaken immersive theatre training. It seems to have changed the way she thinks about her work. Talking about her time during the recent workshop, Riddhi described it as deeply immersive and eye-opening. She shared, “It transforms arts into a science and tries to understand the most detailed nuances of a performance - expressions, emotions, and even how physicality changes with them.” This change to a more detailed and structured way of working was new for someone who has mostly worked in front of the camera.The Rajasaab actress admitted that she has always relied on instinct while performing. “I think I’m very intuitive as an artist, and I really rely on what I feel at the moment,” she said. However, the training pushed her to look at her craft differently. “I felt more intentional about every emotion that I was feeling. I was still going with the flow, but also understanding every small change in that flow—how it begins, how it ends.”One of the biggest changes for her came from moving away from camera-based acting to performing on stage. “I had never really done theatre before. It was very liberating because theatre is a continuous process. It needs a lot of physical strength and breath control,” she explained, adding that the experience boosted her confidence and made her enjoy performing in front of a live audience. “We were doing physical training every day, which was quite intense for me. I enjoy yoga, but this was on another level. Activities like underwater breathing exercises pushed me out of my comfort zone but also helped me grow. It made things easier on stage. My breath capacity and expressions became more fluid. They believe that emotion is breath and breath is emotion. Once you understand the breath, the emotion follows automatically. Now I feel stronger, not just emotionally, but physically too. I feel more in control of my body while performing,” she said.