For many, in India and around the world, the ‘big fat Indian wedding’ shown in Bollywood films, spanning multiple days of rituals and celebrations, has become synonymous with Indian weddings. It’s this Bollywood-inspired change, and the conflicts, comedy, and drama that arise in families because of it, that the musical Blame it on Bollywood explored.
The English-language comedy musical follows a Punjabi-Bengali family as it gets caught up in a whirlwind wedding when their daughter decides to marry a Muslim boy. Bharat Dabholkar, the writer and director, asks, “What happens in a family that deep down wants to do a simple wedding, but also because of Bollywood’s influence, everybody wants to make it as big as they can and spend a whole lot of money?” According to him, hilarious situational humour and satire are what make the play worth watching. He says, “Adding yet another element, we went into a Hindu-Muslim wedding to show two different communities getting together, and what happens in a family when this happens.”
The show had all the glitz and glamour of a Bollywood film, with fast-changing video walls as backdrops, energetic choreography, and vibrant costumes with all songs being iconic Yash Raj film songs or catchy parodies. National award-winning actor Ananth Mahadevan, who plays the father of the bride, laughs recalling an anecdote, “In the biggest theatre in South Africa, Jayati (co-star) showed the audience four simple steps of dancing. And you wouldn’t believe it, the non-Indian and Indian audiences actually stood up and started dancing in the aisle, in the balcony, some of them even came on the stage, and everybody got carried away.” He continues, attributing the joyful nature of the play to their fun-filled rehearsals, “A very orthodox theatre person might get scandalised if they watch our rehearsals. Bharat (director) says, disposition and humour during rehearsals become a mental and a physical exercise to convey how enjoyable this play is to the audience. The kind of indiscipline we have in the rehearsals is the discipline that we bring on stage for the play while performing.”
Despite being packed with fun, the musical has its fair share of genuine and touching moments that come with every wedding. “When my daughter is going away, there’s a sequence where I just come and untuck her jhumka that has gotten caught. In that small sequence, I feel as if my heart is being wrenched and taken out of my body,” says popular actor Jayati Bhatia, who plays the bride’s mother.