BENGALURU: Hailing from Mumbai, Akarsh Khurana is quite a familiar face in the Bengaluru theatre scene. This time he is coming with not one but two plays - The F Word by Aadyam Theatre Group and Dekh Behen 2. Both the plays are being staged in Bengaluru for the first time.
The F Word is about a son and daughter who are estranged siblings and go back to their hometown to take their father out for lunch. This is not the first time Khurana has found a muse in a dysfunctional family.
Tripling, a web series written by him, or even his movie Karwaan, starring Irrfan Khan, Dulquer Salmaan and Mithila Palkar, had a dysfunctional family in the background.
“Generally the subject is quite a relatable one. So that’s something I quite enjoy watching and wanted to try my hand at it by writing and directing,” says Khurana, quickly adding that his family is not dysfunctional at all. “I mean, they’re all strange and wonderful in their own ways,” he quips.
The second play he is coming up with is Dekh Behen 2. While it’s quite unusual to see a part 2 of a play, Khurana says it was the success of the show that intrigued him to do so. “Dekh Behen part 1 has done about 105 shows. I wanted to know more about these women,” says Khurana, about the story which has moved five years ahead.
The true nature of theatre lies in longer formats. While a lot has been spoken about the reduced attention span of people, Khurana says it applies to theatre-goers too. However, he believes it is the content that can do the trick. “There have been many plays which are 90 minutes long and people sit through it without being fidgety. But you need to know how much your content can hold,” says Khurana, who is currently working on Mismatched’s third season starring Prajakta Koli and Rohit Saraf.