“The idea of putting up such an ambitious production is to ensure that the younger generation is hooked on to our amazing epics and appreciate our literature. The Gen X are not even sure if Ravana appears in Ramayana or Mahabharatha. We are talking about the Netflix generation which is also keen to consume content not just on phone but on stage and on screen too. Although we have a full-fledged weekly series called Mahabharata in he 90s, the current generation wants it in a short format and this is an attempt to do so,” says Rahul Bhuchar, produce of the play Mahabharata which will be staged in the city twice at 3 pm and 7 pm on Sunday at ShilpkalaVedika, Hyderabad. Rahul, who runs Felicity Theatre which is bringing the play to the city, also plays Karna in the epic play.
Elaborating on the hard work that goes into it, he says that it took director Puneet Issar (who plays Duryodhan and has played the same role in the TV series) about 18 months to put the poem into a script format. It took eight months of rehearsals. There is a lot of hard work as the lines are long and complex and of course the costumes. “For the backdrop, we have a LED screen using P9 technology. We hired professional engineers to get this done. And yes our Lord Krishna will make a dramatic entry during the vastraharan scene. He will literally fly onto the stage using trapeze techniques. There is an ensemble cast of about 28 artistes and 20 are backstage which include makeup artists, costume designers, ushers etc. This will look like a 3D movie live. We have used Hindi and not Sanskrit that almost all the audience will be able to relate to,” he adds.
The play needed about 10 timekeepers to coordinate the eight-hour rehearsals in the last six months. The play has had 55 successful runs so far and they do plan to stage Ramayana in the next season, June 2020. We can throw an open challenge that it is the best mythological play in India. “Incidentally Gen X forms a majority of our audience in the four-hour play. They are mesmerised by the scale and magnificence of the play. We have noticed that the youngsters do not even check their phones even once as they are clued into the spectacle,” he concludes.