Playwright Girish Karnad foregoes royalty for his play, as the young First Ray Productions brings it back after six long years.
The young team of First Ray Productions is all set to stage Girish Karnad’s celebrated play Bali — The Sacrifice back on stage after six years. The last time the play was staged, it was directed by Nona Shepphard, with Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah in the cast and shown in London.
When Jha called up Karnad to tell him that he wanted to remake the play and invited him to come over to watch Karnad refused. “I had heard that he was very stern but he was very polite to me. He didn’t even charge me any royalty for remaking his play! He declined to come in a very courteous manner because he said he never watches his own plays,” says Jha.
The idea to bring the play back came from the 24-year-old founder of First Ray Productions (the youngest professional theatre group around) and actor-director Anshuman Jha.
“I was fascinated by the character of Mahaut. I just had to do this part so I decided to make this play,” says Jha. But he didn’t want to direct it. He chose his friend and first time director Abhishek Saha for the job. “It’s a very complex play with complex characters and I thought Abhishek could do justice to it,” says Jha.
The greatest challenge for Jha though, is stepping into Naseeruddin Shah’s shoes with the role of the singing mahaut — the catalyst in the story of a royal family. “It’s a big thing for me,” says Anshuman. “But we have deliberately not seen the original play because we didn’t want to get influenced by it,” says Saha.
The rest of the cast is also full of young and emerging actors like Yamini Namjoshi, Sukrit Kumar, Nisha Lalwani and Amol Paraskar and the relatively more experienced Avantika Akerkar.
DID YOU KNOW?
Actor-director Anshuman Jha of First Ray Productions had been fascinated by the story of Girish Karnad’s Tipu Sultan for many years but the moment he got his eyes on Bali, he knew he wanted to bring it on stage.
The play will open on September 26 at Sathaye Hall in Vile Parle, followed by NCPA and Whistling Woods International in October. The play is also slated to go to US and Mauritius in the coming months.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}