Director Mahesh Bhatt on his film-turned-play Hamari Adhuri Kahani that will be staged at GD Birla Sabhagar on November 29, presented by Wonderz Entertainment in association with t2...
Another of your films has been adapted to stage. How do you feel when your story takes a new shape in the hands of someone else?
Hamari Adhuri Kahani was first written as a screenplay, from which a book was carved out by Surhita Sengupta (All That Could Have Been). From that book, Happy Ranajit, an NSD graduate, did a theatre adaptation. It is each person who adds his or her own world view or breath to the narrative.
Why don’t you direct the plays?
I don’t have the skills to be a theatre director. I began my career as a movie man. I discovered theatre much later. When I look back, the play that I remember is Sakharam Binder written by Vijay Tendulkar and directed by the late Satyadev Dubey. I was very close to Mr Dubey. All my formative years were spent in his company... it was in the late ’70s.
You have sung for the play...
There is a wild singing that I did during the rehearsals of Hamari Adhuri Kahani. Imran Zahid (who plays the lead role in the play) insisted that he wanted to use that song somewhere. I can hardly claim to be a singer. It is like an amateur trying to rise to the occasion and deliver his best.
How do people who have watched the film react to the play?
I think they must go for a completely different experience. Though there is some kind of a similarity in the storyline, the director has created a different universe from what he feels about the story. So you will see his fingerprint in the play, not mine.
Imran Zahid seems your favourite! He was in the stage adaptation of Daddy too...
He is a dear friend of mine and it was his passion and energy that fuelled the theatre activities under my name. But it is actually he who is the locomotive from the word go.
In a recent tweet, you have protested against genetically modified farming and said, ‘I wouldn’t want my sarson da saag any other way’. You are a serious eater?
Oh, I enjoy my ghar ka khana. I am a simple vegetarian and a frugal eater. Most people are shocked when they hear that I am a vegetarian. I am a dal-roti man with one saag. Talking about Calcutta, I love mishti doi. I can walk miles to get some mishti doi!
One book you read and liked...
I keep reading a lot of magazines. I read non-fiction books a lot. Recently I read The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr. I was also impressed by the book called The Politics of Humour: Laughter, Inclusion, and Exclusion in the Twentieth Century. It gives you an in-depth view of the landscape of humour. Philosophy and humour are kissing cousins… humour is not just about The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, there’s much more there.
Your fave TV programme?
I find the Homeland drama series quite fascinating and interesting.
Alia is a very bright girl who is firmly entrenched in the entertainment space now. She has four hits and one flop. The flop has made her complete because a flop makes you realise that you are a human being and not a person who has descended from the sky and who will only have hit after hit. I think she has deep committment to the craft and she has a mind of her own. I love listening to her views about movies and life. I find that tremendous wisdom emanates from young people... parents normally don’t listen to children, they normally talk down to their children. I make it a point to listen to my children and it is a very enriching experience.
And what do you love about Calcutta?
Calcuttans have this appetite to go out in the evenings and consume cultural events. We still call it the cultural capital of India.
What’s on your playlist?
At the moment I am revisiting the ghazal space of the ’80s and ’90s... listening to Mehdi Hassan, Ghulam Ali and Farida Khanum, so that I can recreate that magic for a film I am going to make soon.
What makes you so active on social media?
I am a man of ideas. I feel that by staying connected in such social networking media, you can get the pulse and the heartbeats of the times we are living in.
What: Hamari Adhuri Kahani in association with t2
Where: GD Birla Sabhagar
When: November 29, 6.30pm
Written by: Mahesh Bhatt and Suhrita Sengupta
Directed by: Happy Ranajit
Starring: Imran Zahid, Rachaittri Gupta and Viren Basoya
About the play: This play, by Delhi-based Moonlight Films and Theatre Society, shares the storyline of the film featuring Emraan Hashmi and Vidya Balan.
A rich, suave hotelier falls in love with a florist, whose husband remains conspicuous by his absence only to return a few years later.
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Entry: Priced at Rs 1,000, Rs 750 and Rs 500, tickets are available on bookmyshow.com, explara.com, at the venue and Manyavar stores (Park Street, Quest mall, City Centre Salt Lake).
Sibendu Das
