The unlikely hero

Kunal Kapoor outside the Prithvi Theatre in Juhu, Mumbai


The fiercely private Kunal Kapoor, newly-appointed director of Prithvi Theatre, shares his plans of organising Indian classical music concerts at the intimate venue to survive in the long run

It's a balmy Wednesday afternoon as I head to meet Kunal Kapoor, the director of Prithvi Theatre at the Prithvi Cafe. Soon he comes down from his office and gestures me towards the Prithvi House, just across the road.

The foyer of the House is replete with comfortable lounge chairs and vibrant-coloured cushions in blue, burnt orange, red and yellow. He says chirpily while fishing out a Marlboro and lighting it up, 'Let's have the interview here. This is the new adda where the Mehfil@ Prithvi was held.'

For the uninitiated, the Mehfil @ Prithvi, whose first edition was held at Prithvi on February 14, is the brainchild of Kapoor. He says, "It was a natural progression, with Urdu having a reawakening amongst the youth. It is an unstructured, informal and inspirational gathering for people who know or want to learn more Urdu.

We hope to turn it into a space where people can appreciate the language and its literature." Led by laureates Javed Siddiqui and Salim Arif and passionate Urdu novices like Arwa Mamaji and Priya Nijhara who run a blog for beginners (www.urduwallahs.wordpress.com), the first edition comprised 'open house' discussions and readings and was aimed at familiarising everyone with the language.

Kapoor says, "This is the first of many programmes in the pipeline. We want to collaborate with like-minded people who want to spread knowledge like us."

However, right now, Kapoor is focussing at the 28th Prithvi Memorial Concert Salaam: A Tribute to Ustad Sultan Khan, which will be held on February 28. The concert started off in 1985 after the demise of Jennifer Kapoor, the force behind Prithvi Theatre.

She was an ardent admirer of Ustad Zakir Hussain and wanted him to perform at Prithvi. But he couldn't do so, due to his hectic schedule. Later, Kapoor approached Hussain in 1985 for the second Prithvi Festival and the latter agreed to perform on February 28, which was Jennifer's birthday.

Since then the concert has become an annual feature, with Hussain designing the musical evenings and offering the traditional 'baithak' experience to the audience. Over the years, established as well as young aspiring musicians from various genres like classical, fusion, jazz and folk music have performed here.

This year, the concert will be a tribute to renowned Sarangi player and Padma Bhushan Ustad Sultan Khan. Kapoor says, "One of my earliest experiences of Indian Classic experience was with Ustad Sultan Khan. This year, we pay a tribute to him and thank him for sharing with us his wonderful music and singing."

Kapoor also reveals his future plans that of organising more Indian classical music concerts at Prithvi. He says, "I feel we are perfect for it as we have the right acoustics.

After watching a concert at Prithvi, I can't enjoy or sit through one anywhere else because everything is amplified, which robs the freshness of the performance. One must remember that Indian classical music was never designed to be amplified." But press him for further details and he says, "I have plans that I can't discuss until they're concrete."

As talk veers towards his new role as the director of Prithvi Theatre (earlier he was the trustee while younger sister Sanjna handled the reins), he says dismissively, "Let me tell you, I have always been around. As the wolves howled that theatre would die following the death of my mother Jennifer Kapoor, director Feroz Abbas Khan and I came together to work towards sustaining Prithvi Theatre."

"After I was active for around eight years, Sanjna started handling the nitty-gritty while the policies were handled by me. I didn't have to be around all the time. But the media likes to put a face to things. And come to think of it, don't you feel she made a prettier picture as the face of Prithvi Theatre than me?" he guffaws.

Though speculations have been rife that the brother-sister duo parted ways since they had different visions, Kapoor says that it was a conscious decision on the duo's part. "We decided that Sanjna would focus on building infrastructure across the country and taking theatre to interior parts of the country while I would handle Prithvi and work towards making it secure."

While theatre aficionados are worried that inflation will have a ripple effect on the Prithvi Theatre too, what with the National Centre for Performing Arts already hiking its rental rates, Kapoor explains matter-of-factly that it is a process waiting to happen.

"Given a choice, I wouldn't want to increase the rent or the rates of tickets. Just a few days ago, a report appeared in dailies that said that this year salaries are going to increase by 10- 12 per cent in India. Why does no one question that?

All of us are part of the same economy. The fact remains that costs are going up and we need to take measures to sustain. It's not going to burn a hole in anyone's pockets if we increase the ticket rates by Rs 10 or 20 on Tuesdays. All the theatre groups that I have spoken to are agreeable and their feedback has been supportive."

Apart from this, Kapoor is also looking at corporate funding. It might be recalled that earlier Prithvi Theatre had tied up with corporate giants like Tata Photon, Orange etc, which not only helped it to publicise the events but also provide financial assistance. Kapoor says, "Abroad, Broadway plays receive funding from corporate houses and city councils, which is not the case here.

In India, theatre is low on the list of priorities. Let's be honest. We are not self-sufficient. We want to pay salaries to the staff, we want theatre groups to make a profit and we want to cover the losses that we run annually."

However, despite all these hurdles, Kapoor sees a silver lining. He is happy that the audience flocking to Prithvi Theatre has increased over a period of time. "Last year, we had an average of 70 per cent audiences while this year it has increased to 83 per cent. Earlier the audience comprised people in the 35+ plus age group whereas now I see more 20-somethings coming in to watch plays," he explains.

He attributes it to a sudden spurt of young new actors, directors and playwrights. "Today, many actors are adopting theatre as a profession. They have accepted that they can't make a lot of money out of it but still want to pursue it because they are passionate.

They have no aspirations of becoming movie stars. In the early '80s, there were many talented actors who started off with theatre but never came back to it as they got lured by films and TV," he signs off.