Broadway culture will be in India soon: Hasan

Playwright Saif Haider Hasan, known for directing dramas like "Ek Mulaqaat" and "Gardish Mein Taare", says the concept of commercial theatre is changing and India will soon attract Broadway-like culture with bigger names from cinema taking a plunge.
Hasan, whose latest play "Mr and Mrs Murarilal" was fronted by actor-director Satish Kaushik and TV actress Meghna Malik, 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. There was high production quality but the content would be in the zone of a drawing room comedy, a sex comedy or maybe a spoof or an adaptation. All these were primarily English theatres or adaptation of Broadway," says Hasan.

The playwright says there was no commercial theatre in Hindi, which is limited to regions like Delhi, which has a very strong culture because of NSD, and Bombay (Prithvi theatre).
"In Bombay, there was Marathi theatre, which was the theatre of the rebel where you had playwrights like Vijay Tendulkar. Then you had the psychological theatre with Satish Alekar, Mahesh Elkunchwar. But the commercial theatre was not there in these languages and it was looked down upon," Hasan told PTI.
Known for his lavish productions, Hasan says the idea is to tell the audience an engaging story and making it "an experience".

"What I did with 'Ek Mulaqaat' was, I brought a very niche subject which you would usually do sans any frills and I sort of put it in your face with the casting (Shekhar Suman and Deepti Naval), lighting and original music. Now if you call that commercial theatre, so be it," he says.

"The ambition is not that we are making a commercial theatre, the idea is to tell a very engaging story. Earlier, it was done only with dialogues but now we are making it an experience. Now if you are depicting a night, please make it look like a night. We use lights to do that. These lights are not just for effect, they convey a certain meaning."

Hasan says his plays can be branded commercial as he is trying to bring more people by using inventive ways.
It is commercial because there is money which goes into its making and it needs to be recovered, he says, justifying the ticket prices.
Hasan, who has roped in famous names like Suman, Naval,
Sonali Kulkarni and Arif Zakaria for his stage productions, says in near future Bollywood stars would be turning to stage.
"It is a very interesting phase and I predict that in next 10-15 years a lot more of the bigger actors from cinema will be moving to the stage. My biggest aim was to direct (Amitabh) Bachchan saab but I don't think it would happen," he says.

Asked if the Broadway trend is making its way in India with known faces like Naseeruddin Shah, Puneet Issar, Anupam Kher, Saurabh Shukla, Shabana Azmi already doing plays, he says, "Very soon... Bigger stars and actors are going to come on stage soon."
"A lot of them are doing theatre for the first time. It has again started getting press. Commercial theatre, if not equal to TV, still pays a decent figure and a lot of people who have been out of work are now getting work. It's a fair and legitimate thing. It is not like they are opening up a shop."

"On the flip side of it, in Bombay the entertainment page has doubled up. Everybody is doing theatre and there are all kinds of theatre - good, bad and ugly. The good thing is a lot of people are now doing theatre," he says.
Hasan says there should be more auditoriums as theatre people are eating into each other's business.