HYDERABAD: When Sanjana Kapoor talks, her intonation rises and falls which lends a certain nuance to her every sentence. She talks almost breathlessly, jumping from one subject to another, moving back and forth, from her grandparents’ work to contemporary theatre, interspersed of course with anecdotes about several productions of Prithvi and changes she awaits.
Deeply rooted in theatre, her passion for it is not hard to explain for it was she who resuscitated the Prithvi Theatre in the early nineties and which has since then grown tremendously in stature and popularity. She immediately qualifies this, “I entered with a lot of trepidation but just always felt strongly for it. There was this fire inside. The stories that I heard at the breakfast table, maybe. It just drew me,” says Sanjana who has also successfully established an art gallery besides reviving the Prithvi Cafe - the place to be for theatre bigwigs in Mumbai.
Born in 1967 to Jennifer Kendal and Shashi Kapoor, Sanjana Kapoor never really took to commercial cinema. “At that point of time, I wanted to act but was not very sure,” she says. Slightly miffed at the suggestion that as a scion of a successful film family, she did not set out to be among the top league of actresses in the tinsel town and instead chose to dedicate her life to theatre, Sanjana believes that her leap to the heart of the theatre establishment was driven by her strong belief in the power of good theatre. “People tend to forget that both my grandparents were actively engaged with theatre. It was not a job for them. It was their life,” she says.
Sanjana’s paternal grandfather, Prithviraj Kapoor founded the Prithvi Theatre in 1944 while her maternal grandparents founded the ‘Shakespeareana’, a touring group that took Shakespeare, Shaw and Wilde to different regions of the country. “My influences were from both sides. Many of the plays performed at that time were prophetic. They dealt with the poor plight of farmers, consumerism and partition to name a few. They did socially relevant theatre,” says Sanjana who detests the description of theatre as ‘elitist’. “I hate that label, theatre is for everybody,” she adds.
Sanjana who started her film career with 36 Chowringhee Lane, which was directed by her father and had her mother in the lead role, does not believe television has influenced the patronage of theatre. “I would not say commercial cinema has eaten into the space but television has definitely changed things a lot. However, theatre will never die,” says Sanjana, who has acted in several films such as Utsav (1984) and Hero Hiralal (1988) and Salaam Bombay.
Sanjana also believes that a lot of work remains to be done in terms of professionalism in the field of theatre. “We do about 550 shows in a year, which is huge. However, there is a lot to be done in terms of audience development. Also there is a dearth of a discerning audience.”
According to Sanjana, lack of training and exposure are some of the reasons that are a detriment to the flowering of Indian theatre on par with international standards. “We are a 5,000-year-old civilisation but the truth is theatre is only 250 years old in this country. We are just babies, that way,” she adds.
Sanajana however has her goals clearly set. “I want to see theatre as a serious part of our lives and not just as entertainment. I want to see Prithvi as not just a concrete structure but something vibrating with a pulse,” she adds.
She rues the fact that even after 32 years, there is still no place to rival Prithvi. “As of now, not many have been inspired by our efforts apart from Rang Shankara. Maybe we should be more articulate. But again, even we are not trained,” says Sanjana who also runs several theatre workshops for children. The government does a great disservice by coming out with free festivals, believes Sanjana. “ The state in a way undermines our efforts by offering festivals for free which is really not a wise thing to do,” says Sanjana adding, “they can instead support the sponsors rather than taxing them. Subsidised rental systems would also help.”
