Introducing Life of Pi’s Tamil actors Divesh and Adwitha

Introducing Divesh Subaskaran and Adwitha Arumugam. The two Tamil stars have landed the lead roles in the current UK & Ireland tour of Life of Pi.

Divesh, was born in Malaysia and raised in Singapore. He came to London four years ago after completing two years of military service in Singapore. Leading the show, Life of Pi marks Divesh’s professional debut.

The role will be alternated by Adwitha at certain performances. Four years ago, Adwitha moved from Tamil Nadu to the UK for drama school.

“I come from Chennai, which is a couple of hours away from Pondicherry (where the play is set), and I spent a lot of my childhood there. Playing Pi, I’ve been able to draw on real experiences, real people that I know and real images that I have in my head.”

“Obviously, I’m playing Pi as female and that in itself changes a lot of things because it’s 1970s in India and gender roles were quite defined at that point. Relationships change, the way Pi sees the world changes and the perspective on things changes.”

Life of Pi tells the story of a teenager, from Pondicherry in Southern India, marooned on a lifeboat for 277 days with a variety of animals including a Bengal tiger. The celebrated novel by Yann Martel has sold over fifteen million copies, adapted into a film, and various international theatre productions.

Adapted for theatre by Lolita Chakrabarti, the West-End show won five Olivier Awards, including Best New Play and Best Actor – awarded to Sinhalese actor Hiran Abeysekera, who played the original Pi.

The spectacular West-End and Broadway production embarked on it’s 2023/2024 tour in September, giving both Divesh and Adwitha the opportunity to discover the UK and Ireland.

For full tour dates click here