BENGALURU : Dancer Dr Sanjay Shantaram from Shivpriya Dance Ensemble assures that his upcoming dance drama production Matsyakanya will be a fantastic experience for the audience. The production will be presented with animation, special lights and sound effects to provide the undersea feel. “It will just be like watching a movie on stage as audio and visuals are breathtaking,” he says. Sanjay, who has done the screenplay, direction and choreography for the production, says, “The story is same. It is a fairy tale. It is a love story between the princess of the sea and prince of the land.
We are trying to give a message about how strong a woman is, through this production. Duties and responsibilities always come first for a woman.” The proceeds raised from this event will go to an international organisation Soroptimist International of Bangalore that works towards the education of girl child and women empowerment. Inspired by American Broadway The Little Mermaid, Sanjay decided to present the production to an Indian audience. “I watched the broadway in the US in 2012 and was blown by the spectacular presentation,” he says.
A few changes had to be made to make it more appealing to the Indian audience. “We made characters more mature than the original ones. In the cartoon, the mermaid is in her teens but our character is older, who falls in love with the prince. The characters have been given Indian names. For example the prince, played by me, is called Vikrama and the mermaid is called Matsyakanya. The sea witch is a woman in the original but in this production, we made it a male character,” he says. The production includes classical and folk dances and several elements of theatre.
The adaptation for this 90-minute drama wasn’t easy. The costume designing took longer time than the screenplay and music, he says. “Costumes for octopus and mermaid were a huge challenge. We were searching for costumes which would look like scales for the mermaid and something with tentacles for the octopus was difficult. We then had to design them and get it stitched by our tailor Mr Munna. We also got a beautician to work on hairstyles of all characters as it would be very different,” he adds. The music recording took about eight days, choreography took a month and costumes took more than a month. “Also, in the US, they had moving stages and here, we have to do our best with limited resources and financial constraints,” he adds.
The music is by Praveen D Rao. The cast includes Anjali Srikant who plays the role of the mermaid, Sanjay Shantaram who plays the prince and Shekar Rajendran who plays the octopus.
The production Matsyakanya will be presented by Dr Sanjay Shantaram and The Shivapriya Ensemble on July 29 at Chowdiah Memorial Hall, Malleswaram. Tickets are available online on eventshigh.com.