Ravi Rai to set up mobile academy in May

Ravi Rai has long been known for doing shows that stood out from the milieu! Come May, the writer-director and producer will launch a mobile school which will train youngsters in the art of acting. It will be called, The Academy - A Media School. "The mobile academy will target the aspirational sectors of India. They will travel to cities like Indore, Meerut and Gurgaon.There are so many things that I need to tell about my craft. There are so many myths about my trade that needed to be broken. I am not gong to promise my students the star...they will know that they habe to go without food for days! They will learn to take acting as any other job, wherein they will be adviced to have an alternative profession to support themselves," says Rai, who feels that schools like the one to be opened by Bollywood biggie, Subhash Ghai, will not help the masses as they will not be able to afford the astronomical fees. Rai has a set of specialists who will select 20 students in each city and train them to have what he calls, "careers without stardom." Although, Rai is the brain behind the project, he will only be present at press meets across cities to promote this venture. The academy will be operational in one particular city for four to five weeks. The students will be chosen on merit and the fees will range from Rs 15,000- Rs 20,000 per head. Rai claims that this idea was in his mind for a very long time. "I was toying with the idea for as long back as my Thoda Hai Thode...days. I used to look at actors their attitudes and I always felt that one needed to concentrate on the mind as well as the body to enhance performance," points out Rai, who's currently working on Bollwood projects with the likes of Anubhav Sinha, Farhan Akhtar and Riteish Sidhwani and is also in the process of producing a Marathi film. This is not all, Rai is also going to launch an online venture called Authorship which will be the online destination of writers across the world to interact with one another and a forum to discuss scripts and concepts. These then will be developed and then pushed through varuied avenues. As far as television is concerned, Rai has a concept in mind and is looking to pitch it to different channels. "I want one big show," says Rai. Here's hoping his next one turns out to be so!