While most teenagers his age are clocking hours on treadmills or lifting weights, 17-year-old Delhi-based actor Vrishab Wig has chosen a rather different path to physical training. He is learning Kalaripayattu, the ancient Indian martial art, under the guidance of Gurukkal Dr. Sumesh P.B., founder of Sathvam Kalari Sangam in Delhi-NCR.
For Vrishab, who holds advanced LAMDA qualifications in Devised Drama and Performing Shakespeare and advanced Screen Acting qualification from Trinity College London, the addition of Kalaripayattu is less about fitness and more about craft. He has been mentored in acting by writer-director Shashwat Srivastava, under whom he has performed in ‘Live! From The Warehouse’, a production that toured Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore and is scheduled for a run in London this July.
That experience of sustaining a demanding role across cities and stages appears to have sharpened his appetite for more rigorous physical and mental preparation. He is also set to perform in a production of ‘Julius Caesar’ in London this June.
“Training in Kalaripayattu with my master teacher Dr. Sumesh P.B. has been transformative, helping me mould my body and mind to truly inhabit a character and discipline,” says Vrishab. “It’s about more than just physical stamina. It gives me the focus and flow needed to sustain a performance on stage with total alertness,” he adds.
Dr. Sumesh P.B., who hails from Thrissur in Kerala and has presented demonstrations at the Bharat Rang Mahotsav at the National School of Drama, has spent years bringing authentic Kalaripayattu training to North India. He describes the form as the mother of all martial arts, one that integrates martial practice with Ayurveda, yoga, astrology and spiritual discipline.
For actors specifically, he sees it as essential preparation. “It is not only for flexibility, strength and stamina; it really helps the actor to mould their body for the character,” explains Dr. Sumesh P.B. “Kalaripayattu practice mainly focuses on the harmony of the body and mind,” he specifies.
This is the kind of foundation that suggests Vrishab is thinking seriously about the long game as an actor and performer.