Ivan Rodrigues

Some Lesser Known Facts About Ivan Rodrigues

• Ivan had a deep passion for theatre since he was too young. He started acting with his school as well as parish plays.

  

• He acted for the first time in the fourth standard in his school’s parish with the musical Godspell.

  

• He comes from a lower middle-class family and his father could not sponsor his dream to study science with donations.

• He achieved the second position in class 12 and went to study commerce at one of the best colleges of the time.

• His father was not against him doing theatre but allowed him to do it on his side very reluctantly.

• He took part in a lot of plays in his undergraduate years and also became the chairman of the Dramatics Society of his college in his last year.

• In 1989, Ivan won Best Play, Best Director, and Best Actor for his play The Chairs at the Dr. S. K. Muranjan intra-college competition. During this competition, Dandavate, who was then the Chairman of the NCPA, invited Ivan to stage The Chairs at the Little Theatre, NCPA. The play received excellent reviews in the press.

  

• After that, he was part of many notable plays, which were critically acclaimed.

• After completing his graduation he wanted to pursue acting but due to the poor financial condition of his family and at his father’s request, he took the competitive exam for an MBA and got into one of the renowned colleges of that time.

• He stayed in touch with acting but later joined the corporate sector.

• In 2009 after working for 18 years in the corporate world, he quit his job to follow his passion for acting full-time.

• in the year 2009 after quitting his job for acting, he earned only 84,700 rupees.

• In 2012, Ivan gave up on his dream to be an actor but his wife motivated him to keep on trying and not giving up.

• It was in 2013 when he got his big break in Bollywood with the movie Satyagraha and since then it has been a smooth sailing boat.

• He speaks Konkani, his mother tongue, with his parents.

• During his first job assignment with Nerolac Paints in Bangalore, Ivan learned Kannada on the job by speaking to local paint dealers.

• He is an accomplished voice-over artist who has lent his voice to various TV commercials, corporate audio-visuals, and videos.

• He was captain of his school’s hockey and football teams in his school days.

• He is a self-taught guitarist and has performed in several musical plays.