Digital media emergence helps theatre, says Mahesh Dattani

Kolkata: 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 playwright and actor said.

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,” he said.

“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."

"What the theatre offers is a completely different experience. It is like asking ... Has the market price for a Picasso original gone down with the advent of printing technology," he said.

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."

"And living in Mumbai and working with theatre artistes of the Marathi stage, I appreciate its rich heritage. Like Bengali theatre, Marathi also has a strong theatre history of musical drama. Today you have cutting edge avante garde Marathi theatre," he said.

Asked about his future productions, Dattani said, "I am going to New York to direct an adaptaion of Lorca's 'Blood Wedding' which will open at the South Asia Theatre Festival in New Brunswick.

"After that, I'll come back to direct a new play on the Manipur civil rights movement against AFSPA and its charismatic leader Irom Chanu Sharmila. The play is written by Shanta Gokhale," he said.

About his present production 'Double Deal Reloaded', Dattani said, "It has only begun its run. We premiered (the play) to an exclusive audience of European diplomats and some of them were ecstatic in their praise of the production, especially the acting.

"The five shows we had so far staged has only seen our audience grow," he said expressing hope that the June 23 show of the play in the city will be liked by the Kolkata audience, "which is one of the most sophisticated ones in the country."