Sense and sensibility

Tell us about the starting-point of the film and the journey.
Onir: Initially, I was keen on making separate films on each subject. But I realised that traditional financiers would not be interested as this was not something that fit into their concept of a project. At the same time, the desire to do these films was immense. That’s when Sanjay Suri came up with the idea and suggested that I should start writing them as short stories. In India, we don’t have a market for such individual stories but the idea is to create a dialogue, not a monologue. So we thought of making them into short films and interlinking them through characters so that we can reach out to a wider audience. Many people ask me about the film’s structure but it has shaped up primarily because of the way it has been financed.
For My Brother Nikhil (MBN) friends and family came together to support us. So we thought, for I AM, let’s try and see if we can make this into a bigger family. Quite often, you come across people on Facebook and Twitter who want to get associated with your project but get scared because the risks are huge. So we thought, “Why not try and put up a post on Facebook?” The first film that we were shooting was I AM Abhimanyu, so we put up a post on FB saying ‘Why Abhimanyu? If you believe that this film should be made then start donating from Rs 1,000 onwards.’ At times, it was tough to raise the money too. There was a person who said that he would give me the money only after he was convinced that I was the real Onir. So he asked me to come down to New Delhi and have a cup of coffee with him. And I did that. But having said that, in less than a month, we had collected a crore. The entire journey started because we were fortunate enough to get contributions from people. Sometimes it takes over a year just to get a script approved from a corporate house. But here despite all odds, in a little over a year and a half, we have not only shot the film but it’s also getting released independently. The whole journey has been a huge success.

Sanjay Suri: This film, besides its content, means a lot to me. It means a victory for true independent cinema and for more than 400 people who had faith in us. It requires a lot of focus, passion and persistence to invest your money in a project without a release date in mind, without even knowing whether the stories would get made or not. I would like to thank all those people for supporting us in this endeavour. I AM would also not have been possible without the cast who supported and believed in us. Everyone, who is a part of this film, has done this project out of love and friendship and not out of any commercial motive.
Onir, were you under any kind of pressure as the finance that was riding on the project was the common-man’s hard-earned money? And how involved were these people in the film?

Onir: We didn’t have a model to follow. So everything that we were doing was an experiment. But it was a formidable task because when so many people trust you and invest their money, then you have to reach that goal. Everyday I would spend three hours on FB, answering their questions and just talking to them. My whole effort was that just because they have sent a cheque, I shouldn’t forget them. So we had to keep them involved through the entire process of filmmaking. It’s really time-consuming to sit and answer each and every question, but at the same time it is so rewarding. The biggest challenge now is to return everyone’s money.

How did you choose these four stories that are also linked to pertinent contemporary issues?
Onir: A couple of stories are inspired by real-life incidents that I have seen or that have happened to friends. It’s not that first I zeroed in on the issues and then thought of making a film on them. Sometimes you are reading stories and few of them remain with you. The story of My Brother Nikhil came to me five years before I actually started filming it. The idea struck me when I was editing a documentary on Dominic D’souza, the first HIV positive activist from Goa. Similarly I knew about Sanjay’s story. But it was only when I went to Kashmir for a recce for another story that I wanted to film when I understood the gravity of the socio-political situation there. For me, the insurgency in Kashmir and the displacement of the Kashmiri Pandits was always a piece of news that I read in newspapers. It was only when I saw endless rows of deserted colonies that I suddenly felt the need to tell this story. So for me, the starting process of making any film begins with the need to tell a story.

What prompted each of you to be a part of I AM?
Juhi Chawla: I did this film mainly for Onir. I had first met him through Sanjay on the sets of Jhankaar Beats. He discussed with me the story of MBN and I really liked it. While shooting for that film, I realised what a fine director he is. MBN was close to my heart as it was a small film made on a shoestring budget but it took me far as an actor. It travelled to various festivals and was used for many campaigns to create an awareness about AIDS. Later, we worked together on Bas Ek Pal. And then Onir came to me asking me for some finance for I AM. There was no sign of a role then. Since I knew Onir, I was aware that he wouldn’t just disappear with the money but actually make a nice film. About six to eight months later, he came back with the script of I AM Megha and told me, ‘This is your kind of film.’
I heard the story and loved it. Going back to Srinagar after 20 years was lovely. I had first gone there during the filming of Sultanat.
The second important thing was that I was working with Manisha Koirala for the first time. Though we knew each other, we had never worked together. But in I AM Megha, she was cast beautifully as a Muslim girl Rubina. It was a wonderful experience. However, I was stunned by the fact that I AM Megha was inspired by Sanjay’s life. It was shocking because I have always known Sanjay. But after I learnt about his story, I just felt how little we knew of each other.

Nandita Das: I could relate to the journey and the situation that Onir went through (finding a producer for the film) as I have struggled with it myself as an actor and a director. Often, one wishes to produce a film oneself. It allows you to do things the way you want. That was the primary attraction for me. But there were other reasons too. Firstly, Onir and Sanjay are very good human beings. It’s nice to work with such people as there’s no stress and you know that no games are being played. Secondly, the way they were planning to do the film was a novel idea. The whole idea of raising funds through a social networking website democratises the whole process and I wanted to support that. Thirdly, the stories that they were trying to tell were human stories. They are extremely relatable yet unique. These are stories that we know but don’t tell or don’t want to hear. I personally like stories that do shake up and disturb us. I AM Afia is about a woman who is struggling with the personal choice of conceiving through artificial insemination and being a single parent.

Rahul Bose: For me, this film is about discrimination and it raises a lot of questions. Why should a sperm donor feel embarrassed? Why should a homosexual be scared? Why should a Kashmiri Pandit feel defensive among Muslims and why should a Muslim feel defensive amongst a whole lot of non-Muslims? Why should a child who has been sexually abused by his father feel bad? Why is it that the people who are judged the most are not judged for who they are, but for what they look like? All of us have felt discrimination.

Sanjay: I grew up in a joint family where everyone was very close to each other. As a kid, when such things (child abuse) happen with your near and dear ones, you know something is amiss but you can’t understand what is it at that time. You are old enough to remember but not old enough to understand the situation. Child abuse is usually dealt with in films as a sub-plot but never as a theme. Fifty-three per cent of Indian kids are abused, so it’s horrific that no one wants to talk about it. People are more keen on changing the names of cities but are not concerned about real issues. But as a filmmaker, you need to tell such stories. The common factor between these stories is that there has been a silence on it — either personal, political or legal. The more we talk about it, it will be better for everyone.

Rahul, was it challenging to play a homosexual?
Rahul Bose: It’s irresistible to play someone who is homosexual, to try and understand what it feels like to be in disguise from the moment you wake up till the moment you die. I know two actors who are homosexuals but are in the closet since the last 20 years. They don’t have the guts to come out in the open and that holds true even in Hollywood. I have never played a role where my character is hiding something and living in constant fear that someone will find out his secret. My character in the film has this intense visceral feeling and suffers from an unnecessary shame, which is what made it interesting.

Were you apprehensive to play such a character?
Rahul Bose: The only apprehension that an actor will have while playing a homosexual is whether it will impact his career in a negative way. I don’t have a career so that thought didn’t worry me! One might feel ‘What will our parents say?’ but my parents are dead so that wasn’t a consideration either. Will any girl ever want to marry me? That they don’t want to anyways! The only thing that perhaps one could have thought of was how society would receive it. Would they throw stones at my house? By now, everyone knows that I would welcome that. In that respect, Onir and Sanjay have cast the right person. It’s a fantastic role and people will appreciate it. It’s the writing, the creation and what happens to that character that is really stunning. It’s a role that would take any actor to a new place.

Nandita, what is your personal take on the issue of artificial insemination?
Nandita: It’s a very personal choice. I firmly believe there should be space in personal choices as long as you are not harming anybody. Our society needs to give us more space. Quite often journalists ask me why I do not work in commercial films, but I feel I’m doing films or roles to which I relate. I’m not asking a commercial actor ‘Why do you do only those kinds of films?’ It’s their choice. We can create space in our society only when all of us can make our own choices. And that’s what Afia is fighting for. In that sense, I relate to Afia, her strength and her confusion. She is strong and vulnerable at the same time.

How did each of you prepare for the role?
Juhi: After hearing the script, Onir and I had so many discussions that there wasn’t any doubt left in my mind. I had a fair idea about my character Megha. But having said that, there are some things that hit you only when you are in that situation. It was only when I reached Kashmir and we started shooting there that I felt the pain of my character.

Nandita: When people ask me how did I prepare for the film, I feel sorry that I don’t have a lovely story to tell like ‘I looked at the mirror and did method acting or I read up books in the library’. I’m sure there are roles which require you to do all that. But someone like Afia or the characters I have done earlier are so human that you just have to imagine and ask yourself, ‘If I were in her place, would I react like this? Would I make these choices?’
And often the answer is ‘Yes’. I wouldn’t say there was any preparation per se, also because filmmaking is a very technical medium unlike theatre where you go through all the emotions at a stretch. So I prefer asking all the questions to my director beforehand.

Sanjay: As an actor you don’t have to go through each and every experience to enact a role. When a role is well-written, you get sensitised to it. The more you think of it, the more perceptive you get.

Which is your favourite story in I AM?
Juhi: I liked Afia’s story. It’s almost lyrical.

Nandita: I really liked I AM Omar (Rahul’s story). It’s very powerful, yet layered at the same time. Usually homosexuality is touched upon with broad brush-strokes. You know so little about it, and what you know little about, you fear it the most as you have your own prejudices about it. A short film cannot make or doesn’t dig the whole gamut of things but it takes one slice of it and does complete justice to that. It’s disturbing because you don’t quite know what to feel, it’s not in black and white like most mainstream films, which give you everything rather simplistically. But this story has many grey shades and the fact that it confuses and disturbs you is its strength.

Rahul: I loved I AM Megha (Juhi-Manisha’s story) because the issue is double-sided. It’s not about the trivialisation of homosexuals where there’s only one side. Here there are both sides. I think whether you are a Kashmiri Muslim or a Kashmiri Pandit, India has been so soaked in blood on both sides that you don’t know which way to go. It will be compelling to watch that and it has been portrayed very finely by both the actors.

Onir, apart from the characters, is there any common link between the four stories?
Onir: Apart from the characters, these are stories that are about contemporary India. Each of the individuals are struggling for that space where they can lead a life of integrity despite their political history, gender or sexual preferences.

How did you cast Anurag Basu and Anurag Kashyap?

Onir: That was not a planned move but it was interesting as few people know that both the filmmakers had come to Mumbai to become actors. I called up Anurag Kashyap because I was finding it difficult to get an actor to play the abusive father in I AM Abhimanyu. He interacts with a lot of theater actors and I asked him, ‘Would you know anyone who will be interested’ and he said, ‘I will do it.’ That’s how it started. Similarly Anurag Basu and I were once having coffee and he just told me that he had forgotten his wallet and asked me if I could lend him Rs 500? I was looking for a Bengali doctor for I AM Afia and Basu fit the bill. When I told him that he would be acting in my film, he initially thought it was a joke but later accepted it sportingly.

Apart from Sanjay, has anyone whose life has inspired this film watched the movie?
What was their reaction?

Onir: I have shown this film to Ganesh Nallari (whose story has inspired I AM Abhimanyu) and after watching it, he opened up to his parents about his abuse. He recently called me and said that from now on he’ll call himself Ganesh Abhimanyu Nallari. That was really touching.

Music just a click away

Neil Nongkynrih conductor and founder of Shillong Chamber Choir shares a light moment with his singers

The Shillong Chamber Choir recently had a first-of-its-kind personalised concert in Mumbai

Winners of reality show India’s Got Talent season 2, the Shillong Chamber Choir has performed in several cities across the country and also entertained India’s first lady Pratibha Patil and the US President Barack Obama. But when they decided to give their first public performance in Mumbai on April 7, they did things differently. They opted to have a first-of-its-kind personalised concert wherein they would perform songs that were requested by their fans on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Neil Nongkynrih, conductor and founder of the choir said, “Usually, the first act is programmed wherein we perform songs of our choice and the second act is quite informal where audience members shout out aloud and ask us to sing us their favourite songs. So this time we asked the producers to use the same concept but in a more organised way.”

Fans could send in their requests a fortnight before the concert and on last count just two hours before the concert, the choir had received over 1,000 requests. Topping the list were hit Bollywood songs like Ajeeb dastaan hai yeh, Kal ho naa ho and Chhoti si asha. Nongkynrih said that rather than performing all of them, they decided to turn the concert into a perfect blend of audience requests as well as innovative pieces like a piano and tabla jugalbandi, a piano and rock-inspired jugalbandi, Mozart’s Queen of the night and a special dedication to pop icon Freddie Mercury.

He explained, “After every show, a huge number of fans request songs that they would like to hear us play. Most of the time we sing a few requests, but with Facebook and Twitter acting as our request lists, we could sing exactly what the Mumbai audience wanted us to sing. If listeners get to select the songs they want to hear, then they will be more engaged. We thought of dedicating a song to Freddie Mercury as he hailed from a Parsi family that was originally from Mumbai.”

Well-known for their jazz, classic rock, popular English, Bollywood and Western classical renditions, the Shillong Chamber Choir was set up in 2001 and comprises 22 members ranging from 15 to 30 years. The group customises their performances according to the venue. For instance, for a recent performance at Chennai, the choir performed Tamil songs including the super-hit Chinna chinna aasai (the original of Chhoti si asha) while in China last year, they rendered couple of Chinese compositions.

Shom Jagtiani, chief operating officer of Indigo Live, which promoted the event in Mumbai, said, “All the best bands have begun using social media to promote their music these days. Clever marketing has always been just as important as having great music. Rather than organising just events, we believe in conducting personalised concerts that helps the audience to interact more with the performers.” With the advent of the Internet and social media sites, personalised concerts might just be the next big thing in the music world.

'I'm attending Bollywood dance classes'

By George! That’s Naseeruddin Shah preparing to play an aging superstar. As for serious pursuits, there’s theatre to turn back on.

At sixty, Naseeruddin Shah is the perfect epitome of the adage ‘Never say never’. Whether it was playing a villager and grooving to Oye Oye in Tridev, or essaying the role of a ghazal singer who is an undercover agent in Sarfarosh or giving voice to the angst-ridden middle-class Indian citizen in A Wednesday!, Shah has time and again tread new grounds and enthralled us with his acting prowess.

After acting in several films over the last three decades, this year he has decided to take a break from cinema and dedicate himself solely to theatre. He says with a resigned shrug, “I’m tired and bored of films. There is no hope on the horizon for Hindi cinema. For one Dibakar Banerjee or Anurag Kashyap, we have hundreds of filmmakers who dole out mediocre stuff in the name of entertainment. I did four movies last year and all of them were big disappointments.”

That prompts the next question. Is he upset about Vishal Bhardwaj’s 7 Khoon Maaf’s dismal performance at the box-office earlier this year? Shah retorts, “I didn’t think the movie was a great idea even when I read the script, but Vishal is a dear friend and I didn’t want to disappoint him. I think rather than seven, there should have been only three husbands. It was imperative that the audience should love Susanna in the first five minutes into the movie so that they could empathise with her. But that didn’t happen.”

However, letting bygones be bygones, Shah is now visibly excited to be a part of Milan Luthria’s Dirty Picture based on Southern siren Silk Smitha’s life. Apart from romancing Vidya Balan again, he will also be seen as an aging superstar showing off his dance moves with much gusto. He says sheepishly, “It’s not my strongest area. So I have been attending Bollywood dance classes everyday.”

Ask him how is he planning to play an aging superstar and he says cheekily, “There are plenty of those in the industry from who I can draw an inspiration.” Later, on a serious note, he adds, “I’m going to model the character on myself, and think how would I react if I was a superstar. Since down South, the films are known for their action sequences, it will be quite a challenge to practice them with as much panache. It will be different from what I have done before as the movie will have obscenely loud décor, action, dance and atmosphere of the Tamil films of the ’70s.”
Prod him a little about his co-star and Shah also lets out a little secret about her, “Vidya is lovely but she has a tendency to giggle in the middle of the shot. And this time, she will definitely get to laugh a lot, thanks to my dancing skills.”
Apart from Dirty Picture, Shah is not shooting for any other film this year.

Instead, he is directing four new plays and paying an ode to one of his favourite writers, George Bernard Shaw. His first production By George that is a collection of Shaw’s two plays — Village Wooing and How He Lied To Her Husband and a poem (English Pronunciation) — will premiere at Mumbai’s National Centre For Performing Arts on April 2. While Village Wooing follows the adventures of a travel writer (Faisal Rashid) and a talkative ‘phone operator (Ahana Kumra) who wants to marry him; How He Lied To Her Husband is a comedy about how a smooth talker (Anand Tiwari) manages to fool his lover’s (Trishla Patel) husband. English Pronunciation recited by Kenny Desai deals with the peculiarities of spoken English.

Shah admits that the litterateur’s lucid language, lovable characters and diverse themes prompted him to direct his works. He says, “I love Shaw’s writing, his language, characters and the theme of his plays. My students (Rashid and Kumra) studied Village Wooing as part of their acting course and did a good reading. Satyadev Dubey had directed Ratna (Pathak Shah) and me in it over two decades ago. It’s a little-known play that is charming and funny. But the piece wasn’t long enough to be staged as a single play, so I decided to club it with two other works and turn it into a 115-minute production.”

While Village Wooing and How He Lied To Her Husband share a common thread and are affectionate satires on wooing, wedding and the aftermath, English Pronunciation deals with the idiosyncrasies of the language. Explaining its significance, the actor-director says, “Language was one of Shaw’s major concerns. It should be spoken with as much clarity and purity as possible. Sadly, English is not spoken the way it should be, anywhere anymore, not even in England.”

But it wasn’t too difficult for Shah to extract a good performance from Desai, thanks to the latter’s impeccable pronunciation. The veteran artiste says, “Kenny’s English pronunciation is excellent. He belongs to the old school and had the right teachers. Today such teachers have disappeared. So many people today don’t know when we say ‘the’ and ‘the’ (pronounced as thee).”

Shah will follow this play up with Shaw’s Arms And The Man that will be staged during Summertime Prithvi, the annual children’s festival held by Prithvi Theatre in May. A comedy set during the 1185 Serbo-Bulgarian war, it is about a young woman who rejects her fiance, a war hero, and falls for a Swiss soldier. The play might sound too complicated for kids but Shah says, “Children should not be subjected only to physical comedy. They should be exposed to plays like Arms And The Man that appreciate spoken English.”

In July, Shah will team up with Rajit Kapoor in an adaptation of Lee Blessing’s famous play A Walk In The Woods. The story about two Cold War diplomats, a Russian and an American who, in the midst of a peace conference at Geneva, decide to take a break, walk in the woods and interact as men rather than as statesmen, has been adapted by the sexagenarian and now revolves around an Indian and a Pakistani diplomat. “It’s a poignant story about friendship and touches upon topics of cross-border terrorism and infiltration.”

Finally at the end of this year, he will present Teesra Salaam, the third play by his group Motley, which dramatises the delightful writing of Ismat Chughtai. “I relate to these stories as they are set in the milieu from where I came,” he admits.
For an actor of his calibre with a wide repertoire of work, Shah is still raring to go and wants to direct plays like Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Shaw’s St Joan and more of Chughtai’s works. He says, “I want to do these productions as they are great plays.”

Shah, who started off his career with the stage over three decades ago, is not too happy with the current scenario. “Theatre is still a fringe activity. Sometime back, there were many film ‘stars’ who jumped on to it to make some quick money. They were like termites, but thankfully that phase is over. But there has neither been a renaissance in writing nor have we discovered anything new in the field of writing. The only thing that has changed is that now theatre has more visibility. I strongly believe that theatre should be done only to communicate with the audience,” he says.

Stage dreams

Television actor Nausheen Ali Sardar returns to theatre after three years with The Play Begins @ 8 pm.


Telly actress Nausheen Ali Sardar was first seen on stage a decade ago in Rendezvous With Guess Who. But after she became a star overnight thanks to her girl-next-door act in Ekta Kapoor’s Kkusum, the actor started concentrating more on her daily show and went on to act only in two plays. But after making a comeback on the small screen with Imagine’s Beend Banoonga Ghodi Chadhunga, the former model thought of revisiting theatre with Delhi-based director Sachin Gupta’s new play The Play Begins @ 8 pm. The production, which premiered last week in Mumbai, revolves around two friends Sophia (Nausheen Ali Sardar) and Raymen (Siddharth Arya) and their views on theatre. While Sophia is passionate about stage- craft and wants to do it for the sheer love of it, Raymen is open to the idea of adding a commercial angle to theatre in order to make more money.

Sardar says that it was the love for the medium as well as a need to change her serious image that prompted her to take up the play. She adds, “My friends often complain that despite being chirpy in real life, I end up playing serious roles. So when I got an opportunity to play a character that is quite similar to my off-screen persona, I was glad.”

The effervescent actress admits that though she was initially apprehensive to take up the play due to date issues, she finally complied on the director’s insistence. She says, “I had just started shooting for Beend Banoonga Ghodi Chadhunga when Sachin approached me with the script. I was a little sceptical as I was wondering if I could manage the play along with my new show. But he convinced me. I could also relate to Sophia’s views. Despite Kkusum’s success, I never took on multiple projects as I believe in working on one project at a time and doing complete justice to it. One shouldn’t misuse performing arts only to make more money or be visible.”

Gupta, a software engineer, has directed 12 plays over the last eight years under the banner of Chilsag Chillies Theatre company. He reveals that his personal experiences inspired him to pen The Play Begins @ 8 pm. He says, “It’s my tribute to all theatre actors. Usually people have no qualms in shelling out Rs 500 on clothes or food but they think twice before spending Rs 100 to buy a ticket for a play.”
The Hindi play that uses a lot of humour also highlights some of the concerns faced by theatre artistes in the country.

“It’s quite frustrating when despite repeated requests to people to switch off their cell- phones, they refuse to comply as they feel it’s just nautanki on stage. Everyone knows about William Shakespeare’s works that were penned just 400 years ago but ask them about the 2000-year-old Natyashastra and they are clueless. Rather than adapting international plays, we should focus more on staging original works,” says Gupta whose next venture is a musical comedy.

The Play Begins @ 8 pm premiered at Mumbai’s Ravindra Natya Mandir on April 10.

Cause and effect

Actors are increasingly walking the talk, adopting causes they espouse in their personal lives. Here’s looking at the Bollywood brigade’s dedicated bunch.

Green with Pride:
Abhay Deol, who is known for his unconventional roles, has decided to go green by turning his dream house into an eco-friendly project.

The actor, who graced the cover of the first Green Life magazine, aims to have a house that will have an environmentally-sustainable design and boast of eco-friendly features like solar panels, rainwater harvesting and a waste- management system.
It seems like Abhay is following the footsteps of Hollywood actors like Johnny Depp who converted his 35-acre Bahamas home to a solar-hydrogen powered unit and Cate Blanchett who spent a whopping 1.5 million to give a green makeover to her mansion.

Blogging it Up:
A decade ago, Lisa Ray shot to fame as the light-eyed beauty who set pulses racing with her sizzling act in the Garden Vareli ad and the music video of late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s Aafreen aafreen. But in 2009, the actor proved there’s much more to her than her looks.

Ray chose to go on an open forum and disclose that she was afflicted with myeloma, a rare form of bone-marrow cancer, thereby urging other people to come out in the open and share similar stories. The brave actress informed everyone that she would like to use her celebrity status to draw public attention to the technological advances that are being made in the treatment of myeloma.

Over the last two years, she has successfully battled the disease. In 2010, the Fortis Lisa Ray Award for Conquering Cancer was instituted in her name that would be awarded to a cancer survivor who has conquered the deadly disease with confidence.

Fuel Flair:
Akshaye Khanna is known for keeping a low profile and let his work speak for him. He made news few years ago when he ordered a customised electric car - REVA.

Khanna decided to do his bit for the environment by opting for this vehicle that is carbon dioxide-emission free. Abroad, Hollywood actors like Alicia Silverstone, Edward Norton and Cameron Diaz also flaunt their non-polluting green cars.

Closer home, Salman Khan opts for a bicycle rather than a flashy vanity van to reach the sets. Though the beefy actor claims that it helps him keep fit, we are quite impressed with his efforts to conserve energy unlike his contemporaries who waste electricity thanks to the various amenities in their gigantic vans.

A Personal Space:
His chocolate boy looks and filmi lineage created a palpable curiosity about Imran Khan when he first made his debut three years ago.

Since then apart from acting in a string of films, the young actor has been in the news for his association with social causes. He sent women in a tizzy when he became a part of theatre stalwart Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal’s path-breaking play The Vagina Monologues, proceeds of which went to victims of domestic violence and other causes that Khan felt strongly about.

The actor had earlier admitted at the Screen Big Picture in 2009, “If I do something for a cause, it is not as a celebrity but as a person.” He had also confessed that he is particular about switching off lights and turning off taps at his home.
Taking his concern for conservation of energy a step ahead, he is now planning to renovate his Mumbai residence. Apart from a manicured lawn, a swimming pool and a theatre, the major highlights of his revamped house will be a windmill and eco-friendly tiles. It’s a known fact that windmills help to generate electricity without contributing to global warming. Looks like Imran might soon inspire everyone else in tinseltown to go green.

Sleeping Beauty:
Vidya Balan, who received flak for her fashion sense and buxom figure, would likely attribute her weight loss to a strict diet and exercise regime, right? No, it is quite the opposite.

Her fans were in for a surprise when she confessed that the right sleeping pattern was the secret of her new-found vigour.

Vidya, who is the brand ambassador for the Sleep Awareness Month, revealed that she had been suffering from insomnia since she was 12 and would not go to sleep before 3 am. But realisation dawned on her only three years ago when despite working hard she was unable to shed off the kilos.

After approaching a dietician, she learnt that her irregular sleeping hours were the main cause. “I always felt that sleep was a waste of time and was fascinated with stories about Shah Rukh Khan and how he slept merely four hours. I was encouraged to follow him,” recalled the star, who, after realising why they call it ‘beauty sleep’, has started sleeping for six hours while she’s shooting and eight to nine hours when she’s not.

Larger than life

Paritosh Painter’s new production I Am The Best captures the madness of reality shows and aims to be a visual extravaganza complete with magic, comedy and music.


Theatre has always been Paritosh Painter’s first love. The actor-director’s association with the stage dates back to his college days two decades ago. After directing and acting in several hit productions like See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, Paying Guest and Get Rid Of My Wife, Painter aspired to tread new ground and present a production on the lines of a Broadway musical to theatre aficionados. He decided to amalgamate reality television with magic in his latest work I Am The Best.

The play, which recently had a sneak preview, will be staged from May 1 to 31 at Mumbai’s Rangsharda Auditorium. It follows the adventures of two magicians — Aditya and Manav — who are the participants in India’s greatest reality show I Am The Best. As part of the show, they have to stay in a house for a month, perform various tasks delegated by the host and outperform each other. The winner will eventually be conferred with the title of I Am The Best. While Ninad Kamat and Joy Fernandes play the two magicians, Shreyas Talpade essays the role of the show’s larger-than-life host who also informs the audience about the regular developments in the reality series.

Explaining what prompted him to capture a reality show on stage, Painter says, “I wanted to do something larger than life. Several musicals and mythologies have been adapted for theatre. Though reality and magical shows have entertained us, they have never been captured on the Indian stage, so I decided to amalgamate the two and present a visual extravaganza to theatre lovers.”

The actor-director, who came up with this idea almost two years ago, was clear that he wanted to showcase tricks at par with international standards in this ambitious project. After roping in his friends —Kamat, Fernandes and Talpade — he then contacted Mangesh Desai, a magic consultant. Desai sent him a few videos that featured tricks performed by ace magicians like David Copperfield and Lance Burton. Painter says, “I told Mangesh that we would do only the finale acts performed by these magicians. The whole idea was to amaze the audience and show them something that they have never before seen on stage.” Apart from other illusions, Painter aimed to show tricks like quick dress-change (where the magicians change dresses in half a second), the classic head-cut (where a person appears beheaded) and playing with light in the air (where the source of light is not visible to the audience) in the play.

But it was quite an uphill task. Painter soon realised that not only did Indian venues have several limitations but there was also a dearth of quality equipments. He explains, “Abroad, there are some venues that are built especially for grand magic acts and have the necessary acoustics and infrastructure. But in India, the scene is quite different. Since there are few professional magicians, the venues and equipments are not up to the mark. We didn’t want to compromise on the quality, so we had to work within these constraints.”

After buying the equipments, art director Ashish Ranade had to upscale them by breaking them down and then rebuilding them so that they could serve the purpose. Painter and Desai also ordered for several books from abroad and used them as references.

Since the last three months, Desai has been training the cast to master the skills of a magician. Painter says, “We soon realised that in order to perform these tricks, a magician should not only use the right technique but also be a good actor to distract the audience. Magicians are trained quite differently from actors. So Ninad and Joy first had to learn those nuances.”

The play that has been produced by Painter’s production house also boasts of lavish sets. While in a regular play, sets are worth just Rs 2-3 lakh, in I Am The Best sets worth Rs 45 lakh have been used. It also features a gigantic TV set in the midst of the stage that Talpade uses to communicate with the participants and the audience.

Since Talpade had date constraints, his portions have been recorded earlier but Painter had to ensure that when the play is staged, viewers feel that the actor is performing live along with the cast. He says, “This has never been attempted before on the Indian stage. Everything had to look real time. So Shreyas, Joy and Ninad had to rehearse vigorously for split-second timing.”

Though Painter has taken a huge risk by attempting such a gargantuan task, he is happy that the 45-minute preview got a good response. He is now aiming to include four more illusions in the 115-minute play when it premieres in May and is also planning to stage it abroad. Ask if he would like to stage the play once especially for David Copperfield and he laughs out aloud, “I would love to stage I Am The Best. After all, his tricks have been featured in it. So I will definitely not rule out the possibility.”