Broadway culture will be in India soon: Hasan

Kishor Dwivedi New Delhi, Sep 21 (PTI) Playwright Saif Haider Hasan,known for directing dramas like "Ek Mulaqaat" and "Gardish MeinTaare", says the concept of commercial theatre is changing andIndia will soon attract Broadway-like culture with bigger namesfrom cinema taking a plunge. Hasan, whose latest play "Mr and Mrs Murarilal" wasfronted by actor-director Satish Kaushik and TV actress MeghnaMalik, is known for roping in big names for his dramas. "The concept of commercial theatre is undergoing a change.Earlier, the commercial theatre had a lot of gimmicks. Therewas high production quality but the content would be in thezone of a drawing room comedy, a sex comedy or maybe a spoof oran adaptation. All these were primarily English theatres oradaptation of Broadway," says Hasan. The playwright says there was no commercial theatre inHindi, which is limited to regions like Delhi, which has a verystrong culture because of NSD, and Bombay (Prithvi theatre). "In Bombay, there was Marathi theatre, which was thetheatre of the rebel where you had playwrights like VijayTendulkar. Then you had the psychological theatre with SatishAlekar, Mahesh Elkunchwar. But the commercial theatre was notthere in these languages and it was looked down upon," Hasantold PTI. Known for his lavish productions, Hasan says the idea isto tell the audience an engaging story and making it "anexperience". "What I did with ‘Ek Mulaqaat’ was, I brought a very nichesubject which you would usually do sans any frills and I sortof put it in your face with the casting (Shekhar Suman andDeepti Naval), lighting and original music. Now if you callthat commercial theatre, so be it," he says. "The ambition is not that we are making a commercialtheatre, the idea is to tell a very engaging story. Earlier, itwas done only with dialogues but now we are making it anexperience. Now if you are depicting a night, please make itlook like a night. We use lights to do that. These lights arenot just for effect, they convey a certain meaning." Hasan says his plays can be branded commercial as he istrying to bring more people by using inventive ways. It is commercial because there is money which goes intoits making and it needs to be recovered, he says, justifyingthe ticket prices. "That (ticket prices) is the only way we recover it. So ifyou have a Shekhar Suman or Deepti Naval or Satish Kaushik anda director like Saif Haider Hasan, you will get greatproduction quality and there will be expenses. So, you need topay for it." (MORE) PTI KIS BKBK