Emergence of digital media helps theatre: Mahesh Dattani

Playwright-actor Mahesh Dattani has said the emergence of digital media has helped theatre and posed no threat to it.

"The days of hoardings and press advertisements are over. One can make trailers for smart phones, which have the potential of going viral. This will only help bring more people to the theatre," the Sahitya Akademi Awardee told PTI.

It is also possible these days to advertise one's play through social media, Dattani, whose critically acclaimed last stage production being 'Double Deal Reloaded', said in an e-mail interview.

Besides, "the screen has proved to be an advantage. Theatre is dying because it is impossible for actors, designers and others attached to it to earn a living from it. Their migration to the screen gives them financial stability as also the experience of working in another artistic medium," the 68-year old thespian said.

Those who are attracted to theatre will always remain, he said.

The director of acclaimed stage plays like 'Final Solutions', 'Dance Like a Man', 'On a Muggy Night in Mumbai', 'Tara' said it was only a matter of time before more and more young people would come back "to the grass root experience of theatre."
He said "just as khadi clothes, organic food, hand crafted items are making a comeback and at a premium, theatre too will command a premium as it has elsewhere in the world."
Asked if theatre is facing any threat from the new age Bollywood cinema, Dattani, director of some films including 'Mango Souffle', said "not at all."
Asked about the regional theatre movement in the country, particularly Marathi and Bengali theatres, Dattani recalled he was on the jury of a theatre festival some years ago in Delhi and "saw a wonderful Bengali play, based on the life of a famous theatre veteran....Some of my plays had been staged in Bengali too."