Bengaluru Theatre Festival makes its debut this weekend

Theatre lovers in the city can rejoice and free up their social calendar — the Bengaluru Theatre Festival has its opening night this weekend with an enviable ensemble cast that includes the likes of Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Patak, Lillete Dubey, Pankaj Kapur and others.

The Bengaluru Theatre Festival (BTH) comes to the city courtesy of Alchemist LIVE, the same name behind the Delhi Theatre Festival. According to Prabhu Tony, COO and co-founder of Alchemist LIVE, Bengaluru seemed to be an obvious choice when it came to augmenting the festival’s reach.

“We’ve been running the Delhi Theatre Festival for five seasons now and we wanted to expand the footprint of the festival and take it to other cities. Not only was Bangalore one of the names which kept coming up over the last few years, but we also received a lot of queries from the people of the city requesting a similar festival there.”

“I think Bangalore was a natural choice. And when we spoke to the artistes and others about it, we got a resounding “Yes!” so we’re here now,” says Prabhu.

A scene from Dopehri
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

For their debut, BTH will be staging Dopehri by Pankaj Kapur, Old World by Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah, and Salaam Noni Appa by Lillete Dubey, Yateen Karyekar, Jayati Bhatia, Rishi Khurana, and Gillian Pinto. About the curation of this lineup, Tony says, “These artistes have been associated with us at the Delhi Theatre Festival (DTH) for a while now, and they were all quite excited about being a part of the BTH opening as well.”

“Old World by Naseer saab is premiering in Bangalore, while Salaam Noni Appa featuring Lillete Dubey is a bestseller written by Twinkle Khanna. Dopehri is based on a novella written by Pankaj Kapur himself. All our selections are unique in their own way — while Old World has a sage and energetic vibe, and Dopehri is a unique one-man show, Salaam Noni Appa has full-fledged action unfolding on stage.”

Prabhu says they wish to bring “all the vibrance and vivaciousness as well as a sense of community” associated with a music fest to the theatre scene with their events. “At this year’s edition of DTH, we had close to 15,000 people at the theatre across four venues, three days and across 12-13 shows. Now, that is something that we are bringing to Bangalore, in the hope that we can introduce more people to this art form.”

“When you want to experience theatre for the first time in your life, you probably want to see the best,” he says, adding that in the years to come, they hope to bring “different kinds and modes of theatre” for people to experience.

A scene from Old World
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Being human

Salaam Noni Appa is a heartwarming story of second chances, and was adapted for the stage by Adhir Bhat. It is about two widowed sisters who live together and what transpires when one of them finds love in an unexpected way.

Lillete, who plays the lead, says Salaam Noni Appa is about the beauty of different relationships, “the one with her sister, the one she forms with somebody younger than her and a person from a completely different background,” and adds that it is a story of not being limited “by what society deems fit for you at a certain stage or a certain age.”

“Life never stops. As long as you are ready to get out of your comfort zone and take some chances, life is full of infinite possibilities in every way. This happens to be about a relationship, but I believe it goes far beyond that,” elaborates Lillete.

Salaam Noni Appa is quite entertaining, she says. “It is funny with tongue-in-cheek humor, it’s poignant and is a sort of autumn romance. It has all those elements which make it popular, but above all, it’s inspiring. And people always relate to anything that is inspiring.”

Bengaluru Theatre Festival 2024
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Well, it certainly must be — Salaam Noni Appa which debuted nearly a decade ago, opens its 75th show in Bengaluru, having been staged multiple times in Mumbai, Delhi and other Indian cities as well as Singapore, Dubai and other international venues.

“The play alludes to many little things with a light and deft touch. While it is not a serious or intense play, it is not frivolous either,” says the actor.

Heart felt

The actor began her stage career with Barry John in Delhi while still in her teens and went on to found The Primetime Theatre Company in 1991.

“When I decided to set up my own company it was largely because of two reasons. Firstly, I wanted a platform to showcase original Indian work; even if it was initially written in a regional language, I wanted to do it in English. And secondly, my aim was to travel with those plays across the world as I wanted non-India audiences to see our work,” says Lillete.

She adds, “Both were difficult to achieve because in those days, very few plays were original; even at the National School of Drama there were a lot of translations and adaptations of work written outside, with just about a handful by Indian playwrights.”

“My heart belongs to theatre and film has always been a parallel activity, even though I thoroughly enjoy all the films I do,” she says.

It’s comes at no surprise then, that Lillete and her troupe were thrilled to be a part of the Bengaluru Theatre Festival.

“Anyone who is doing anything to promote and encourage theatre has all my admiration and blessings, because I am such a passionate advocate of the art form. The Delhi Theatre Festival has been growing from strength to strength every year and Bangalore is one of those culturally live cities. Hopefully, this venture will encourage them to branch out into smaller cities in our country.”

Lillete rues how many are unmindful of the “blood, sweat and tears” that go into a theatre production. “People would rather watch a movie than a play. However, theatre should be more highly valued since it is a live medium as opposed to a mass medium which has thousands of screens showing the same film all over India. A theatre has one show with an actor performing for audiences assembled that day. Obviously, you have to value that and the work that has been put in to produce it.”

The Bengaluru Theatre Festival will take place from December 6-8 at Good Shepherd Auditorium. Tickets and schedule on Bookmyshow.