Ep 9 : Preetam Koilpillai : Bangalore Theatre Director Series

OT Radio

Theatre director Preetam Koilpillai reflects on his decades-long journey through the Bangalore contemporary theatre scene. He traces his evo

Key takeaways

• Preetam Koilpillai's early directorial foundation was built on instructional notes provided by mentor Vijay Parik.
• Mahesh Dattani played a pivotal role in supporting Preetam's first public directing efforts in 1992.

Main topics

• Bangalore Theatre History
• Mentorship and Artistic Influence

Notable quotes

My job as a director is to be a mirror.

Conclusion

The episode provides a profound look at how the rigorous process of ar

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:03) My friend Sergey has bought a painting. It's a canvas about 5'4". White. Just white. The background is white. And if you screw up your eyes, you can make out some fine white diagonal lines. Speaker 2 (0:21) Sergey Speaker 1 (0:22) is one of my oldest friends. He's done very well for himself. He's a dermatologist. And he's keen on art. On Monday, I went to see the painting. Sergey had actually got hold of it on Saturday, but he'd been lusting after it for several months. This white painting with white lines. Speaker 2 (0:43) Seen at Sergey's house, at floor level, a white canvas with fine white diagonal scars. Speaker 1 (0:52) Sergey, you haven't bought this painting for 200,000 francs, have you? You don't understand that's what it cost. It's an entry us. Come on. You haven't bought this painting for 200,000 francs Speaker 2 (1:07) I might have known you had missed the point. You Speaker 1 (1:10) paid 200,000 francs for this shit! That was a scene from the play, Art, written by the celebrated French playwright, Yasmina Reza. It is a play about friendship, art, ego, and the many things that we choose to fight about with the people we love. The voices you just heard were R.D. and Sanjay Singh from Organizational Theatre, bringing this scene to life. And today, we speak to the man who directed Art in June 2015 at Jagrati Theatre. Some journeys in theatre are measured in productions, performances and applause. But some journeys go deeper. For Preetam Koelpile, theatre has been a journey of curiosity, struggle, discovery and transformation. Speaker 1 (1:58) From the early years of finding his voice as a theatre maker to the many challenges that come with creating, directing and sustaining theatre. Along the way there have been plays, actors, collaborations, failures, breakthroughs and countless moments of learning. But perhaps most interestingly there has also been a journey inward, a gradual discovery of oneself through the unpredictable, demanding and deeply human process of making theatre. In this conversation, Preetam looks back at that journey, the challenges, the lessons, the people who shaped him and the realizations that have stayed with him. A journey through theatre and in many ways, a journey within. Ladies and gentlemen, this is OT Radio and I'm your host, Ranji David. Speaker 1 (2:47) Hi and good morning, Preetam. Speaker 2 (2:49) Hi, Ranjit. Thanks for having me. Speaker 1 (2:52) Thanks for coming on the show and thank you for giving us your time to be part of this podcast. Speaker 2 (2:58) No, not at all. Where does Speaker 1 (3:01) theatre start in your life? Where does it begin? Speaker 2 (3:04) I think with a lot of people, it starts in school, right? So for me, I think my earliest recollection of... participation in anything theatrical was I think in standard one where I had to take a plastic ring and chase somebody who was a rabbit and put the ring around and that was I think my first experience of you know a play but you know later on in middle school high school and so on I got more involved with you know school plays I liked acting in school plays and so on And but I think there was a point where something started shifting a little bit. At least the interest got a little more serious because I can't remember the year exactly, but I think I was in standard 10 or so when BLT came to the school and they did a workshop. If I'm not mistaken, it was sport. You know, they do their annual summer workshop, right? So I could be wrong, but I think it was spot that they were doing at the school or I think they had just come to work with us, you know, at the school. But either way, I met people who are doing theater outside of school for the very first time. And Vijay Parikeet was, you know, in charge of the workshop. And he's been I think he was my first big influence. And he continues to. remain a friend and I look up to him like a mentor and so on. So yeah, that's where it sort of began, the first taste of theatre, so to speak. Speaker 1 (4:46) And take us through your college and then joining the first theatre group in Bangalore. Speaker 1 (4:56) Yeah, well, Speaker 2 (4:57) music was really what I was, you know, very seriously pursuing at that point. So I was already playing the piano quite a bit, that thing. And I wanted to become, you know, a professional musician and so on. So theater sort of remained something that I was interested in. High school, of course, you know, lots of plays and so on. After school, I went for a short period of time to... work to study music in London on a scholarship and I came back to India and I went and joined college there that didn't last for very long Speaker 2 (5:43) Oh, 1991, I think. So I think, not entirely sure, 91 or 92. And yeah, I joined college there and that relationship didn't last for very long. We sort of split on, you know, mutually agreeable terms. But during, when I was in college, I had a couple of interesting experiences meetings um in fact in fact before that i have to sort of backtrack a little bit i think before college also i think i'm very hazy on the details but high school for sure maybe early college i attended another spot workshop where i ended up directing um a player for i think i directed the workshop production that was my first taste of direction so my first encounter and experience really was with BLT, you know. And I think if you speak to most, like a lot of, particularly the older theatre people, you know, from Bangalore, a lot of them have gone through BLT, you know. Sorry, you were going to say something. Speaker 1 (6:55) Yeah, I mean, is that the Mahesh Elkunchwar play that you directed in 1992? Was that the one? That came just after Speaker 2 (7:05) this, actually. So, the play I directed for the SPOT production was the very first thing I directed ever. But it was a workshop production. So, I met Mahesh when I was in college because I think he was auditioning for Final Solutions at that time. And he was looking for... I think it was either people who could be part of the chorus in the play or a musician. I can't remember what. But I remember going, I think, primarily as a musician. And I met him and he said he would like me to help with sort of working voices with the chorus and so on. And I thought I'd never done anything like that before, but I thought that was interesting. and so i got involved with that then he asked me to choreographing the chorus then he asked me to act in the play as well so i played the character in the play and then he asked me to co-direct the play with him so that all happened over the course of that one production uh and in the course of that one production he also said you should direct a play otherwise and I said yeah but I've never I've directed this you know the workshop production for BLT but I haven't I have no experience whatsoever he said don't worry I'll help you I'll produce it so at that time he had a group called Playpen and he said I have these two plays these are two translations of Mahesh Alkunshwa plays and Let's do this. And he produced it. He found the cast for me. I had no clue how to go about any of this. And he produced it. We performed at Yavannika. And yeah, that was my first taste of directing in 1992 for public performance. And then after this, I think Final Solutions got its first performance. Though Final Solutions was already in rehearsal while this was going on. Speaker 1 (9:12) You were involved with Mahesh Dattani's Final Solutions very earlier in your career. What was it like working with Dattani and what did that experience teach you about directing, managing people or even putting things together on a stage? Take us through that. Speaker 2 (9:28) Yeah, so I have to say though that, you know, when I directed the spot production for BLT, I think, you know, Speaker 2 (9:38) Vijay Padukki was the person who really sort of gave me a very clear sense of what to do as a director because he gave me this set of notes. I can't remember what they were called, but I think they were called something on notes of how to be a director or what to do as a director or something like that. And he gave it to me and it was literally like, I think a set of, you know, typed sheets. And I directed. the play uh you know looking at those sheets and i took the same set of sheets into uh the Mahesh Alkunshwar production and i can i swear to you i literally went point by point you know on those sheets uh you know to to help because i had no clue so i literally you know followed those sheets step by step uh Mahesh was a huge support i think I think the biggest thing, one is, of course, I mean, his experience. So he knew exactly how to put this together, who to call. He put production together, everything. And, you know, and the most important thing I think that he did for me was just to be there. You know, he was solid support, solid moral support. But never once did he actually say, OK, let me take charge. Let me do this. Okay, are you finding it a little difficult? Okay, I'll do it. He just, he put his faith in me and let me be. And I think that was the biggest thing he did for me. I think that did a lot, you know, for my own confidence, for my own self-esteem and so on. And we got through that production. I think it went off, you know, fairly well. And that's, I think, what I'll remember Mahesh always for, you know, his support and his friendship. Speaker 1 (11:31) I would say it's quite a privilege, isn't it, that you have someone backing you, being there for you and helping you through the whole experience. Absolutely. Let's talk about Black Coffee. Black Coffee became associated with contemporary and unconventional theatre in Bangalore. What was the theatre scene like when you started off Black Coffee? And what did you feel was missing that you wanted Black Coffee to create? Speaker 2 (11:54) Okay, so I have to just again, like go back a little ways because before Black Coffee came, Rafiki. And Rafiki really was the turning point for me in terms of how I was looking at theatre or being involved in theatre. So right up to that point, there was a particular kind of English theatre scene. And there were directors who'd been around for some time, there were newer directors, younger people were there. coming in through the BLT productions, through the ART productions and so on. Speaker 2 (12:35) I was accustomed to say a certain way of doing things, you know. And I think when there came a point in my life where this changed and I met Hartman D'Souza. I'm not sure whether you're familiar with him, but I met Hartman D'Souza who was working with the IFA at that point. I met him under, I think, what I would call rather difficult circumstances. I was working for Radio Midday at that time. I was doing a classical music show for Radio Midday. Speaker 2 (13:14) I was not in the best of places, you know. And I remember the producer of the show finding me once in the office. And I think I had just sort of gone to pieces. I was sitting there. I couldn't move. I think I was trembling, you know. And she realized something was wrong, you know. And she said, okay, I'm going to send you to meet somebody. You go meet him. And just, you know, let's see what happens. And I think out of desperation more than anything else, you know, because for a long time over that period and even later and so on, I've I've I've struggled, you know, with difficult things. I've been depressed and, you know. Speaker 2 (14:06) I've had difficulties dealing with things and, you know, coping and so on. This was a point where, you know, it became, you know, it was one of those low points in that period. And so I went to meet Hartman and Hartman, I think by the time I had already been, you know, like playing the piano and so on. So I've been playing publicly, performing publicly and so on. So I think he knew of me as a musician. And he said, the only thing he said is, Are you free tomorrow at 6? So I said, okay, yeah. And this is 6 in the morning. And I said, yeah, okay. And he said, okay, come here. We start work tomorrow. And I had no idea what to expect. I just showed up at 6 o'clock in the morning. And he started working with me. He started rehearsing with me. Just him and me. What year was this? Oh, God. Speaker 2 (15:04) It might have been about 96, 97, I think, around then. Please cut in. Yeah. Speaker 2 (15:14) So I started rehearsals with him and he started rehearsing a play with me. It was a solo performance. And I was exposed for the first time in my life to a completely different way of doing theatre, a completely different approach to doing theatre. I was accustomed to a very sort of, say, traditional proscenium. Speaker 2 (15:38) theater with you know with all the trappings that come with traditional Brazilian theater the way you block the way you know the whole process of you know script and you know dropping scripts and blocking and all that you know all this kind of conventional steps and so on and suddenly I was thrown into this scenario where you know all that you know just was of no help I was I was kind of literally put into the deep end of the pool and Suddenly I was learning things that were beginning to blow my mind, you know, about just movement, about self-awareness, about, you know, of what is the word of just being present, you know, just being present, being just completely aware of who you are, where you are, what you are doing and allowing things to emerge from that, digging very deep inside yourself, you know, to pull out things that. needed to be pulled out. And so it was a sort of very visceral kind of experience for me. It really, really, I think it transformed, I have to say it transformed, you know, the way I looked at theatre and it transformed my life as well, because it was almost like a form of therapy, you know, for me, by the time I think we reached the end of that process, I was actually I would go as far as to say a stronger person, you