‘Pakistani actors are used as a publicity gimmick’

Director Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan believes that artistes from across the border create an initial curiosity about movies but fail to attract crowds to theatres

I honestly believe that using Pakistani actors in Hindi films doesn’t really help a movie’s fate at the box-office. Indian filmmakers use these artistes to generate a lot of buzz around their movies. No matter, what kind of love-hate relationship we share with Pakistan, we are still curious to know about its citizens. And Indian directors and producers capitalise on this fact. But having said that, it does not attract the crowds to theatres. For instance: Tere Bin Laden is working not because of Pakistani pop singer Ali Zafar, but due to its story.

Similarly, the period when a film releases is also of utmost importance. Today when Tere Bin Laden, has been released, the political relations between both the countries are not so bad as they were few months back. But if the time is not good, then you end up facing a lot of difficulties just the way I did while filming my debut movie Lahore. Three years ago, when the relations between India and Pakistan were good, I had initially approached Jawed Sheikh, who is considered as Pakistan’s Amitabh Bachchan, for a role in my film. After narrating the script to him on telephone, he was eager to work with me.

I also wanted to cast Miss Pakistan, Mehereen Sayed, as the female lead for Lahore after meeting her at a bridal show in India. But soon the political relations between both the countries became very bad. The producers become wary that the negative publicity would affect the film’s marketing and box-office prospects. So I had to scrap my plans of roping the Pakistani actors. Finally only Rahat Fateh Ali Khan was roped in for a qawwali.

The second half of my film had to be shot in Pakistan. So I approached the concerned authorities for the requisite permissions but I didn’t get any reply. There was also a lot of backlash after the first teaser of my film was released. Finally, Lahore was never released in Pakistan.

Pakistani actors, however, are very professional and talented. They are eager to work and make it big in Indian cinema. They are recognised as stars back home only after they are accepted here. Roping in Pakistani actors who are based in South-East Asia is not a big deal. The real problem arises with those who stay across the border as they have to face a lot of work permit issues. Rather than facing so many hurdles, an Indian filmmaker finally thinks that he might as well cast some local talent.

In Pakistan, cricket and music are the two major forms of entertainment. Television is also quite big and has good opportunities but cinema is still looked down upon. They have neither the technical finesse nor enough theatres to screen films. So when actors from Pakistani films come down to India, it’s not a big deal because they are not stars in the real sense of the term. Initially, they take some time to understand the medium of Indian movies. And by the time they finally understand it, it’s too late as their film usually sinks at the box-office. The audience has given its verdict and they can’t manage to get any good offers.

But singers from across the border manage to get recognition here because they are constantly innovating and doing variations. The music scene in Pakistan is thriving. Naturally, when those singers come to India, their work is recognised and they get better feedback.

The cultural exchange between both the countries will definitely narrow the divide over a period of time. Till a few years back, neither of us knew about each other’s cinema and music. But today things are completely different. We know a lot more about Pakistani singers and music bands. Few years ago, the Pakistani film Khuda Kay Liye was also released in India. Similarly, even they watch our movies. During the making of Lahore, I met a lot of distributors across the border who know a lot about Bollywood. So things are progressing steadily.

The Art of Numbers

Acclaimed British Theatre group Complicite’s award-winning play A Disappearing Number that explores the mysterious mathematical collaboration between two experts


Two years ago when Sanjna Kapoor, Director of Prithvi Theatre, saw British Theatre group Complicite’s acclaimed play A Disappearing Number, she was completely floored by the unusual concept and exceptional production values. This magical production takes as its starting point the story of the most mysterious and romantic mathematical collaborations of all times - that of our mathematical genius Srinivas Ramanujan and his English counterpart and mentor G. H. Hardy.

The award-winning play premiered in the United Kingdom in 2007 and has subsequently been staged in various parts of the world. It features British and Indian actors born in the UK.

The moment Kapoor saw the play, she knew it had to be staged in India. “It moved me to tears. I wanted to bring it here because it featured Ramanujan and had an Indian connect. But I also knew it would be too difficult to raise the money. For two years, I tried hard to throw out the idea from my head.” Finally earlier this year, a professor from Tata Institute Of Fundamental Research requested her to bring down this play to India to coincide with the International Congress of Mathematicians held for the first time in Hyderabad in August.

The British Council also showed a keen interest in the play and following several months of activity, A Disappearing Number will finally be staged in Mumbai at Jamshed Bhabha Theatre on August 9, 10 and 11.

According to Kapoor, the play gives out the message that man can achieve far greater goals through collaboration. The story about a young Indian genius and an elderly British mathematical expert touches on serious topics with playfulness and encourages a spirit of curiosity. It perceives maths as a form of art and explores its unique connection with theatre. “When we plan to bring down any foreign production to India, we focus on three main issues. Firstly, there should be no compromise on the production values, secondly it should provide a supreme experience to the audience and thirdly it should make people curious about theatre,” says Kapoor.

This is not the first time that Prithvi Theatre is bringing down a play from Complicite. They had earlier staged noted litterateur William Shakespeare’s Measure For Measure in 2005. What has prompted Kapoor to bring down the acclaimed group’s plays in India repeatedly is to familiarise the Indian audiences with their productions. “Complicite is one of the top five theatre groups of the world and the finest example of British culture. I had first heard about it from my aunt actress Felicity Kendall 12 years ago. I went and met them. They were supposed to come down for our festival in 2000, but that didn’t happen. I had first seen their play An Elephant Vanishes, a Japanese play, in 2003 which was magical.”

In 2008, Prithvi Theatre was very close to staging A Disappearing Number in Mumbai. But the company abandoned the project following the 26/11 terror attacks in the city.

Prithvi Theatre has also organised a series of programmes till the first week of August as a precursor to the play. It’s celebrating Maths Month with a host of films, music performances and workshops based on the subject. In collaboration with the British Council, it also organised a unique interdisciplinary science and drama five day workshop called as Hive Mind Project. Led by mathematician Victoria Gould, who has also worked with Complicite, it brought together school teachers and students and explored how the world we live in is governed by mathematical principles. It has also organised a Maths Mela, which travels across schools and colleges across the city and includes a maths lab, film screenings, animation, live performances comprising readings, juggling and games.

Adam Pushkin, Head of Arts and Creative Industries, British Council, said, “We conceptualised and started working on this concept since last November. Maths is usually perceived as a serious subject. The whole idea was to energise students and young people, make them look at maths as a fun subject by exploring concepts in our daily lives.”

Revisiting the Mahabharata

Preeta Mathur


Preeta Mathur portrays various characters of the epic and raises serious questions in theatre group Ank’s 75th production, Prashna Panchali


Joys and sorrows are an intrinsic part of our lives. But it’s only when the going gets tough, that we start questioning things around us and seek answers from the Almighty. However, is it worth asking these questions and hurting ourselves further or should we just accept things the way they are? Theatre stalwart Dinesh Thakur’s new play Prashna Panchali explores all these issues through the eponymous characters of Mahabharata. Based on modern poet Sunita Budhiraja’s work by the same name, the play is a solo performance of poetry in Hindi. It’s quite special for Thakur as it is his group, Ank’s 75th production and the first solo performance show staged by his team. It also marks his return to the theatre circuit as a director after two years following his illness.

The stalwart along with his wife, actor Preeta Mathur, felt that they should stage a play on Buddhiraja’s work after reading it. Mathur read the 200 pages book, which is in free verse Hindi, and chose those parts that could be weaved in a one-hour play. She chose the characters of Kunti, Karna, Arjun, Draupadi, Bhim, Duryodhan, Gandhari and Krishna. Says Mathur, “After reading Prashna Panchali, I felt that the free verse Hindi should not only be read but also heard aloud. As Draupadi was the focal point, I chose those characters who are directly linked with her.”

The Mahabharata is a mirror of our society. In the play Draupadi asks some questions, the answers to which we have been striving to find till date. She questions why don’t the elders help her when she is being disrobed by Dushasan or why Arjun, whom she loves, doesn’t reciprocate her feelings? Similarly, the other characters have questions for themselves and for Draupadi.

Prashna Panchali also questions whether the Mahabharata, that was completely orchestrated by Krishna, was worth the entire war as it involved so much of anguish, bloodshed and suffering.

Mathur says, “In the play, the epic is perceived from the points of views of the Pandavas, Kauravas and Karna. So Arjun asks why didn’t Draupadi oppose when she was married off to all the Pandavas by Kunti. If she was married only to him, then he would have protected her and she would never face any humiliation by the Kauravas. Duryodhan says that his mother Gandhari had blindfolded herself and refused to address his concerns. So when he is deprived of his parents’ love, why should everyone expect him to be understanding? Karna asks Kunti why he should be sympathetic towards her sons, the Pandavas, when she had abandoned him after birth?”

The play also looks at the common perception that Gandhari had blindfolded herself as an act of sacrifice. “Was it really an act of sacrifice? Because usually, when a woman’s husband is physically-challenged, it’s believed that she should be his biggest support. But in this case, Gandhari’s act can also be perceived as that of detachment, she chose to blindfold herself to detach herself from the suffering,” explains Mathur.

The actress, who enacts all the characters in the play, read several contemporary works based on The Mahabharata to get a better understanding. Though she won’t be changing any costumes, she is portraying the diverse roles by adopting different stances and playing with her voice levels.

Prashna Panchali will be staged at Prithvi Theatre on July 28.

A novel act

Actor Tisca Chopra gets talking about her new role as a judge in Star Anchor Hunt

You will be seen on the small screen as a judge for the first time in Star Anchor Hunt. How does it feel to be back on television?
I can’t wait for the Star Anchor Hunt to start. We travelled to many small towns scouting for talent. The contestants were so ambitious and have such a will to make it! After pack-up, we would go for sightseeing. It was a mini-Bharat -darshan.

The overall scene on the small screen has changed since your last stint on television. How do you perceive this change?
I can’t relate to the content in soaps on TV. I love Indian Idol, Comedy Circus and most of the dance shows. But reality TV today is shocking. People will say anything to be on television.

What prompted you to be a judge on Star Anchor Hunt?
I was between films and Star Anchor Hunt gave me an opportunity to travel the country, meet the youth and see what makes them tick. As an actor, it’s great to be deeply connected to real people from different cities and small towns all over India and to hear their stories. TV is a great medium to reach the vast population of this country. Its popularity is huge, beyond our imagination.

We have heard that you have also been a news anchor. Is it true?
No, I haven’t been a news anchor, but I am trying to convince the channel to send me on a special assignment to Afghanistan or if they need an interview with United States President Barack Obama. Now that would be fun!

What qualities will you be looking at in a contestant to be a good anchor?
They should have an ability to respond to rapidly- changing scenarios or be quick enough to think on their feet. They should also have a keen insight into world affairs and a decent appearance.

How will the anchors selected by Star Anchor Hunt be different from their competitors?
They will be different from their contemporaries because the process is different. This is the first time you’ll see anchors selected for the job, not just people who landed up reading the news. These will be anchors who have had rigorous training and they are not just anchors but also journalists. There isn’t a single anchor hunt across news channels. Star Anchor Hunt is a pioneer. And this would be a treat for those looking to see some real talent emerge out of the newsroom.

Can you recall any funny incident that occured during the auditions?
An over-confident contestant challenged the channel and our judgement. The comments had to be heard to be believed. We laughed so much that the shooting had to be stalled. If Star News shows all the footage, the show will have the highest TRPs ever!
Journalist Deepak Chaurasia is known for his serious image. But in this show, people can see him in a completely different light. You will see him fall off his chair laughing.

Apart from the concept, how will Star Anchor Hunt be different from other reality shows?
you have Chetan Bhagat, Deepak Chaurasia and me as judges. Also the two winners will get actual jobs with the channel and start a new career. This is on the lines of The Apprentice. I hope the winners will be the new face of Indian news.

Are you keen on participating or anchoring any reality shows?
If they get Meryl Streep, Leonardo Di Caprio and Johnny Depp, as house-mates on Big Boss, I will definitely be a part of the show! As for compering, I’d love to do a Koffee With Karan, host a chat show or do an Indian Idol.

You were last seen on the big screen in Firaaq. Why is there such a long gap between the movies?
The tragedy of an actor’s life is that they have no control over the film after their work is over. If I had my way, I’d release them the Friday after shooting got over. I have finished three films back- to-back between 2009 and now, but you’ll have to ask the producers when they will come out.

What are your forthcoming films?
Rangeen is my first comedy and an adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I have a lovely role in it. 404 is a psychological thriller that also deals with bi-polar disorder. I play a professor who is also a psychiatrist. Khushiyaan is a Punjabi film set in New York and Punjab. I play an NRI who returns to India to discover love and her family. I also have a guest appearance in Vinay Shukla’s Mirch that takes a satirical look at relationships between men and woman.

You were also writing a script. How far has that progressed?
It hasn’t progressed at all. Every time I sit down to write, a shoot comes up and I trot off. Coming back and restarting is hard. But I’ll finish it soon. Basically writing is like a husband, whom you take for granted. Acting’s like a lover, I wait for it and chase it. (Smiles).

You have worked in theatre, films and television. What has been your favourite medium?

Films are like miniature paintings. I love the detailed work that one can do in movies like changing your physical appearance or the voice to suit the character.

Television is like big strokes of whitewash. A giant monster waits for four episodes each week; it has to be fed, at the cost of quality sometimes.

Theatre is just a necessity for actors. It helps an artiste chisel his craft in an exacting manner with immediate results. You know right away if you have connected with the audience or not.

All for peace

Seven kids save the future in The Mighty Mirembayanna & The Prisoners Of Peace, Thespo’s first production for children

This summer, kids get a chance to learn something new and save the world at large in a futuristic play in Thespo’s first production for children, The Mighty Mirembayanna & The Prisoners Of Peace. The year is 2122 and the war has struck mayhem in the world, but the only thing that is keeping people safe in the land of Bragi is the The Mighty Mirembayanna tree. Things start going awry when the tree starts dying and the government is adopting desperate measures to maintain peace in the country. How the kids save the tree, maintain peace in Bragi and keep war at bay forms the crux of the play.

Written by Akash Mohimen and directed by Abhishek Saha, the play is the culmination of a four-week workshop, Dramabaazi, organised by Thespo, a youth theatre initiative. It opened on June 1 at Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai. This is the first time Thespo has undertaken an activity for the under-15 age-group.
Quasar Padamsee, the brainchild behind Thespo, says, “Thespo has always been about nurturing new talent. The process of introducing and sharing the magical world of live performance with the kids was a great opportunity. We were apprehensive at first, but our real heroes turned out to be the children. This full scale production has been driven by them, with guidance from Abhishek, who is brilliant at getting the kids to open up and discover themselves.”

The biggest challenge that Abhishek and his team faced initially was to zero in on a script for the play. They read a lot of scripts, independent stories, dabbled with the idea of merging two-three stories and transforming it into a play, but nothing was working right. Finally, they decided to come up with an original concept.

“I had done a 20-minute play for schoolkids in Ahmedabad some time ago. After I narrated the story to the team, everyone liked it. Akash was roped in to flesh out the idea and turn it into a full-fledged play. Though he started writing it with that project in mind, The Mighty Mirembayanna & The Prisoners Of Peace is very different from the initial idea,” says Abhishek with a smile.

Akash, who has earlier written scripts for short films, was penning a play for the first time. He attended the workshop for a few days to understand how kids think and to get a better idea about their vocabulary. “Today, kids have a higher intellectual capacity than what we had as children. They are exposed to different types of media and a lot of fantasy like the Harry Potter and Twilight series. So I had to understand how they think and would react to a particular situation.”

After Akash got an insight into their psyche and personality, he got down to writing the play. “I wrote the play from the point of view of a 15-year-old. I went back to my childhood days and thought about my fantasies and the various social themes that excited me. It was also challenging as writing for a play is different compared to a short film. A play is more dialogue-heavy and you have to tell the story through each character,” he adds.

After the script was ready, it was time to select the kids and train them accordingly. According to Abhishek, 12 kids attended the workshop and finally seven were selected since they were free at that time. “The youngest member is nine years while the oldest member is 16 years. It was interesting as well as challenging to condition their minds and make them think like their characters. I also insisted that they learn the dialogues because it is difficult to perform as long as they are holding the script,” explains Abhishek.

Apart from these processes, the director also ensured that his assistants, who also play supporting roles in the play, mentored the children. “This was done primarily because theatre is a group activity. It was important that a bond is formed within the group. Two kids were assigned to each adult so that they could discuss their apprehensions and seek proper guidance from their mentors,” elaborates Abhishek.
The writer and director are happy with the final outcome and are glad to entertain the kids at large. As Abhishek says, “The underlying theme of the play is how kids come up with a solution for the most difficult problems through their innocence.”

Shoe & tell

Bollywood hotties have an enviable footwear collection

Heels, flats, platforms, gladiators, sequinned designs and classic monotones, celebs have all this and much more in their footwear collection, thanks to their fetish for shoes.

Happy feet

Celina Jaitly owns around 1,300 pair of shoes. She has been an ardent footwear lover since her childhood days. She would dispose off her hardly-used pairs just so that her parents could buy her new pairs.

Today, she has a separate closet for shoes that include brands like Jimmy Choo, BCBG, Guess, Aldo, Nike, Ugg, Deisel, Bebe, Louis Vuitton, Anne Klien and Marc Jacobs.

While Kim Sharma has lost count of her shoes, Koena Mitra admits she has around 400 pairs. Kim was bitten by this footwear bug since her early modelling days and now owns Kurt Geiger, Marc Jacobs, Guess and Chanel shoes. Koena has been diligently adding to her ever-growing collection since she was in college. She now owns classic footwear from reputed brands like Christian Louboutin and Salvatore Ferragamo.

Kareena Kapoor has a cupboard full of shoes. She is fond of colourful high-heels and buys branded footwear whenever she travels abroad.


Too good to be used

Celina confesses it’s not easy to use all her shoes. “Some are my absolute favourites and I wear them all the time. As for the rest, I just look at them and sigh in extreme happiness,” she smiles.

Neha Dhupia, a self-confessed shoe fanatic, admits that she’s too scared to wear her expensive shoes. She wears them at home, admires herself in the mirror and then tucks them back into her closet.

Most memorable incident

These leggy lasses also take a lot of efforts to add that elusive new pair to their ever-increasing collection. Celina recounts how she shopped till she dropped while she was shooting recently at Canada for Anees Bazmee’s Thank You. “My tooth was aching so I decided to pick up some medicine. I stopped at a chemist but then I saw a shoe shop across the road. I bought 11 pairs of shoes and when I returned to the hotel, I realised I hadn’t bothered to pick up my medicine,” she laughs.

Kim is always in the quest for the right size. She remembers one such incident. “I really liked a pair of gladiators but the store didn’t have my size. I checked out the other outlets. All the sizes were available except mine. This happens with me quite often. It’s funny as well as annoying,” she signs off.

The Survival Instinct

Theatre director Bijon Mondal entertains kids with Pi, the first Indian stage production based on author Yann Martel’s Life of Pi

Kids can now get some serious lessons about life, albeit in a humourous tone, in Bijon Mondal’s latest play Pi. Based on author Yann Martel’s award-winning novel, Life of Pi, the play is a fantasy adventure that revolves around the experiences of a Piscine Molitor Patel better known as Pi, an Indian boy from Pondicherry. His family decides to move to Canada after selling the animals in their zoo. But things go wrong after a terrible storm. Pi is left stranded with a tiger, a hyena, an orangutan and a zebra on a life boat. How Pi survives the ordeal forms the crux of the play.

The idea of making a play on the novel struck Bijon few years ago after he read the book. He was not only impressed with the philosophy but also the book’s visual appeal. “Life of Pi gives out the message that you should love nature, human beings and animals. It also has several scenes which can be interpreted in a visually creative way in a play.”

He later asked his friend to adapt the novel into a play. Pi opened last year but Bijon was not satisfied with the end result. Earlier this year, he roped in another friend, Neha Singh, to adapt the novel in a crisper format to entertain kids. The biggest challenge that he faced was to convert the novel into a children’s play. “Life Of Pi is an adult novel. We had to simplify the concept and adapt it in such a way so that kids could understand it.”

It was quite a challenging task for Neha who was adapting a play from a book for the first time. “The novel is quite lengthy. So I could not include all the scenes as the play would have become long. Moreover, children have a short attention span. So I selected those parts that were most appropriate for kids yet retained the story’s essence. I tried to convey the book’s theme in a shorter yet effective way.”

Neha also added a lot of humour in the play and focussed on reducing the complexity but maintaining the story’s simplicity. She started off by reading the book twice. After a fortnight, she kept the book aside and tried to recall those parts that had left an imprint on her mind. She decided to retain those scenes in the play. She initially wrote only the scenes and later included the dialogues.

Once the adaptation was ready, it was time for Bijon to recreate the book’s visual appeal. He started off by instructing his designer to create a boat that could be used for the storm as well as the dream sequences along with a lot of lighting effects. Mumbai-based band, Translucent, was roped in to score the background score and compose a few songs for the play. “We wanted Pi to be a visual treat for kids,” he says.

He also instructed 19-year-old Upen Shukla, to portray the 13-year-old Pi convincingly and interact with the animals in a certain way. “I started observing the body language and mannerisms of boys of that age. I also used a lot of imagination to perceive how a boy would react when he is stuck with a tiger, hyena, zebra and an orangutan,” Upen explains. Finally after rehearsing for almost two months, Upen was ready to play Pi.

The team is happy with the way the play has shaped up. Pi which was staged recently at Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai has garnered a good response from kids. “Pi is being liked by kids and adults alike. In fact, a lot of children came to see the play for a second time after enjoying it the first time around,” signs off Neha.