MUMBAI: The art of live acting and singing isn’t new to Indians, as every festival and occasion had the custom of enactment of certain folklores. A befitting example would be the tradition of RamLila in North of India during Dusherra. However, the art met mart in Mumbai, erstwhile Bombay, considering the financial dynamics involved in the city. From mere 30-odd makeshifts theatre groups in the beginning that performed English Plays for Brit soldiers to today’s grand depiction of Mughal-E-Azam, the history and the present both have been glorious, with twists and turns, like in a drama script.
The much in demand, Tamasha form of art, played to the gallery in Maharashtra was nourished and fathered by Patthe Bappurao. The art form still has an audience, however still struggles to gain a mainstream audience all over and sustainability is a problem. The evolved audiences have found their interest in musical plays or commonly known as Natyasangeet in Marathi, which has regained popularity off late. The city witnessed night long sessions of a single play like Katyar Kaljat Ghusli in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Marathi theatre has been blessed by the legacy of musicals for almost a century and recently it saw a much-needed revival with many iconic plays of the past like Katyar Kaljat Ghusli, Sangeet Saubhadra and Sangeet Manappaman coming back and receiving an immense response.
In the last few years, many musicals in English and Hindi too made their way in the world again. Be it Mughal-E-Azam, produced by the producers of the original movie, Shapoorji-Pallonji at National Centre of Performing Arts (NCPA) or Disney’s Aladdin, Sound of Music and Beauty and the Beast.
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However, the dynamics involved in Marathi and English or Hindi musicals vary. As a Marathi veteran producer Anant Panshikar shared that the difference begins with ticket rates itself; the tickets for Marathi musicals are maximum 500, the beginning mark for English and Hindi musicals. In fact, the ticket rates for this epic drama ranges from Rs 500 to Rs 8,500 and is sold out within no time of opening the bookings. Even booking amounts for the auditorium differ as for Marathi plays the amount is few thousands but for English and Hindi plays is nothing less of two lakhs. All this because the audience for Marathi plays is only Marathi speaking audience and thus limits the footfall.
For producers, however, commercial viability is of major importance, especially in a city like Mumbai, where the production cost for a basic play would be no less than a few lakh rupees, box office collection is of prime importance.
Priyanka Barve, the lead actress of the play Mughal-E-Azam, who portrays Ankarkali had earlier shared how a week before the show opened for the first time, they were not confident about the response and thought of extending the rehearsals by another 15 days. The biggest doubts the team had was who would buy a ticket worth `10,000 and watch it. All the eight seasons of Mughal-E-Azam have been sold out and raved by bigwigs and commoners alike. The musical has travelled Delhi, Singapore and Dubai with the cast and crew. The play has a mammoth star cast of 350 people, costume changes involving 550 costumes, and 200 lights dazzling the stage. The glitz quotient is high, with ace costume designer Manish Malhotra doing the costumes and Feroze Abbas Khan being at the helm of affairs.
The trade is buzzing with rumours of Sharatchandra’s classic novel Devdas is to be brought to life on stage too. While that happens, let’s enjoy the current crop of musicals.
