Rashi Bunny

Rashi Bunny is an Indian Theatre and Cinema actor. She is known for her Solo plays Bhisham Sahni's Madhavi and Manjula Padmanabhan's Hidden Fires with director Arvind Gaur. Rashi Bunny was selected as "one of the 50 Icons:Emerging personality of India" by Sahara India group with Rahul Gandhi.

Acted in Duvidha film. Her solo Hidden Fires was invited for Queen's Award Project (UK) for Communal harmony. She also worked with Living Theatre Academy under Shi. E Alkazi. She is guest faculty at NIFT and has lectured widely in schools, colleges and institutes of repute in India and abroad.

Personal

Rashi Bunny 's mother is a theatre actress. Trained from National School of Drama. Her Father was a businessman. Rashi pursued her training in Theatre Arts and Design at the University of Alabama and Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA. She is a recipient of Young Artist Scholarship & Junior Fellowship from department of Culture, HRD and Ruby Llyod Artistic & academic Excellence award and Best International Student Scholarship Award. She acted as lead in many plays, such as Beth Henley's "Abundance" and Jules Feiffer's "Feiffer's People" and worked with directors like Karma Ibsen, Ward Haarbauer and Anne Carmichael.

Theatre in India

On her return to India, she received the Young Artist scholarship and worked under Shyamanand Jalan in Calcutta and was part of many productions, like Khamosh Adalat Jari Hai and Char Sau Karod Bhullakar. "Nabh Taaron Se Khandit Pulkit" translated from an American Dark comedy, was her directorial debute at Padatik.

Acting in Solo Plays

*Bhisham Sahni's MADHAVI, her first solo, directed by Arvind Gaur won accolades all over India and abroad.

*Manjula Padmanabhan's Hidden Fires was Rashi’s other solo directed by Arvind Gaur that has been selected by SKP as one of the best plays of year. It was also performed for Queen’s award project ( UK ) for Communal harmony.

*Walking Through the rainbow, her latest solo premiered in Chennai and deals with domestic abuse and other NRI issues.

She has also acted in:

*Mahesh Dattani's Tara & Final Solution,
*Vijay mishra's Tatt Niranjana,
*Swadesh Deepak 's Court Martial and Sabse Udas Kavita,
*Munshi Premchand 's Moteram ka Satyagrah,
*Rajesh Kumar's Me Gandhi Bolto
*Street play- Teen Kanastar for Asmita theatre group, New Delhi.

Work with Banjara Theatre

As Founder Director of Banjara Theatre Group at IIT Kharagpur, she has designed and directed Many plays such as:

*Dharamveer Bharti 's'Srishti ka Aakhiri admi'
*Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena's Bakri
*Habib Tanvir's Gadhe
*Manjula Padmanabhan 's Hidden Fires

*She also directed many open air productions like Daldal, Swaha-Swaha, Bandar Kaun, Girgit, Pahle Aap, Teen Apahij, Deewaren Kuchh Kehna Chahti hain, Haathi ki Po(n) etc.

*For the Children's Theatre Wing of Banjara, she has written and directed musicals like - Veer Abhimani, Aazadi Muft Nahin, TunTun TunTun Tana Bana, Education gives Real Freedom, Gopi Gayan Bagha bayen, Beda Dekho Ki.

Theatre festivals

These plays have been performed for various Theatre festivals, Institutions and NGOs in India and abroad including NSD, SKP, Nehru Centre, IHC, Darpana Academy, IIT, Old World festival,British Council, Vivechana National festival, Muktibodh Natya Samaroh, World Social Forum, Satta Festival, JNU, IILM, PCVC, Stella Maris, DU, Jawahar Kala Kendra, Action Aid, Heinrich Boll Foundation, Armmono-II (ITI Unesco) and Nizhnevartovsk Theatre Festival.

Theatre Teaching

Rashi has conducted theatre workshops for Engineering and management students, children, Youth and adults from all kinds of background and judged many drama competitions in Bengal, Delhi and Rajasthan. For IHC, she has conducted Theatre workshops and was the coordinator for the Platform theatre. She is guest faculty at NIFT and has lectured widely in schools, colleges and institutes of repute in India and abroad.

Awards

*Chosen as one of the 50 Icons: emerging personality of India in 2005 by Sahara Group.
*Special jury award for experimentation with tradition at International Solo Theatre Festival Armenia
*"Colour of Nation" award at the International Theatre festival in NIZHNEVARTOVSK THEATRE FESTIVAL, Russia .
*Hidden Fires, best play of year selected by SKP
*Best International Student Scholarship Award

Critics' remarks

*It was a delightful solo performance by Rashi Bunny, as she brought to fore a range of human emotions in 'Bhishma Sahni's MADHAVI... it is an experiment both in its presentation by the director Arvind Gaur and its enactment by the actor Rashi…the Set and its use to my mind is indeed creative bordering on the genius. -The Hindu

*The play was among the very rare meaningful theatre we get to watch in our city. Thought provoking, overwhelming, it left so many fighting their tears. Each person present would have identified with the double standards of our society, each person sitting there would have felt guilty of having reduced the existence of a woman to a mere object, a commodity. Each woman would have relived some part of her life.-Hindustan Times

*All women will be able to see a part of themselves in it. The relevance of the issue makes the time setting immaterial.Even though the play is based on mythology, Madhavi. It was a delightful solo performance by Rashi Bunny, as is contemporary in its presentation and style...-India Today

*Its 'an actor's play'... The Kathavachan style has been adopted and the actor Rashi relates to the audience in day to day baat cheet…an intense and intimate theatre experience. -The Pioneer

*The solo performance is an experiment. Its like taking people through a journey.Even the set design is very experimental. There are blank canvasses on the stage and different colours placed in earthen pots,that symbolize the different colours of life.-First City

*The complex story of Madhavi, her trauma, tragedy and conflicts were portrayed with great sensitivity by Rashi Bunny.The simplicity of set design, use of bamboo structures, canvasses & helped audiences to extend their imagination to grasp the diversity and multi dimensional directorial interpretation of the play.-Nav Bharat Times

Cinema

* Duvidha (Hindi)
* Cast- Manoj Verma, Rashi Bunny
* Director: Sharat Kumar

Source and References

* http://www.anandfoundation.com/zz_madhavi_4.asp
* http://www.darpana.com/node/427
* http://www.hindu.com/mp/2004/11/24/stories/2004112400100100.htm
* http://www.darpana.com/node/421
* http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=63372#
* http://www.indianexpress.com/news/duvidha/325476/
* http://www.screenindia.com/news/duvidha-hindi/326473

External Links

* http://www.nmsindia.org/news/Sept05/Rashi/Rashi.htm
* http://www.nehru-centre.org/newsletters/2007/newsletternovember2007.pdf
* http://209.85.175.104/search?q=cache:k46X34viBOgJ:www.indiahabitat.org/calendar/sep2k3/calen2.htm+rashi+bunny+arvind+gaur&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=16&gl=in