Musical Theatre: Stories in a Song | Unscripted with Akarsh Khurana

Unscripted with Akarsh Khurana

In this episode of Unscripted with Akarsh Khurana, a panel of seasoned performers explores the intricate world of musical theatre in India.

Key takeaways

• Namit Das identifies 2007 at Prithvi Theatre as a pivotal moment for bringing live music back to Bombay's stage.
• The concept of the 'triple threat'—acting, singing, and dancing—is identified as a rigorous technical requirement for modern performers.

Main topics

• Evolution of Indian Musical Theatre
• The 'Triple Threat' Skillset

Notable quotes

Everything you do, every move you make influences another move.

Conclusion

The episode serves as both a celebration of Indian musical talent and

Transcript preview

Speaker 4 (0:00) Also to talk about music, it would take an entire season and not just one episode. So we'll focus on one subset, musical theatre. Speaker 7 (0:18) I did not know theatre could be this. It was fascinating. It's Speaker 1 (0:22) not just you who's doing anything. Everything you do, every move you make influences another move. Speaker 5 (0:27) We've had such a diverse history of musical storytelling in this country. It's been Speaker 6 (0:32) going on for Speaker 5 (0:33) centuries. Speaker 6 (0:33) Somewhere, it disappeared. It was very conditioning that don't talk about work. We have to do it. We have to see it. Our people will come. Something has happened. Something is wrong there. Speaker 8 (0:55) Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your host Akarsh Khurana. Speaker 4 (0:59) Welcome to the fourth episode of the third season of Unscripted with Akarsh Khurana. So I don't remember where my journey with music began. I think that there is some vague memory of me making mixtapes and selling them in school for tuck shop goodies. But I suppose that's a rabbit hole that we should not go into. And also to talk about music, it would take an entire season and not just one episode. So we focus on one subset. Since this is an Adyam podcast, we will talk about musical theatre. I toyed with a lot of music on stage in our 26 years as a theatre company. And finally, last year, I found the courage to actually put up my first... musical and it was not easy and my beard was black before that and today here here when the lights come on you'll see that we have a whole lot of people who have dabbled and excelled in musical theater much before me in on stage and in the audience we actually are privileged to have some very talented people, very senior people in the audience and we will come to them at some point of time. I am privileged right now to be able to chat with all of them about the joy, the journeys, the music and perhaps the need for a more homegrown contemporary Indian musical. So please welcome today on stage Namit Das, Sharvari Deshpande, Amitosh Nagpal, Shruti Sharma and Taruk Raina. Speaker 4 (2:39) Starting with you, Namit, and then we'll go this way. What was your introduction to musical theatre? How did your journey with musical theatre begin? Speaker 3 (2:48) 2007, Speaker 4 (2:49) and Speaker 3 (2:49) I'll cut a very long story short. 2007, Prithvi Theatre, the theme was musicals. And I feel that's really a turning point for a lot of people. and also a turning point for the musical theater scene in Bombay. And that's why I feel festivals are so important. And that's when there was a horde about, . And how he had explained budget cutting Speaker 3 (3:25) Music literally disappeared from the stage. Live music literally disappeared. And I would say that 2007, that was a little push towards that direction that let's find music back. And then you had all those productions and that's where the association began with me and Sunil. Mastana Rampuri. Mastana Rampuri and Chappan Churi, which was a version of the Tripeni Opera. And then it never ended. And interestingly, 2007, that show, when we performed it at Prithvi, Shubha ji and Anish ji had come. Shubha Mudgal, the great classical singer, and Anish Pradhan, also a classical maestro. And they got very excited. They said, this is a very exciting medium. Obviously, musical theatre is ours. It's been going on for centuries. It disappeared somewhere in the middle. And then eventually they said, okay, fine, we do a musical festival in Pune, which is our musical festival, which is Baja Gaja. And 2011, let's put these stories together of music making, history of music, musical theater, music, you know, all of these. Let's just put up a show and let's see what we can do with it. And that's how Stories in a Song came into being, which was literally putting up all of these actors. And we literally put it up in like 20 days. And that was, that reaction was so phenomenal that it literally brought back music to the live scene in Bombay. And I literally saw music becoming an integral part of theater and the Mumbai. theatre scene, the Mumbai experimental scene where we were literally counting pennies, should we include music? Because what Speaker 1 (5:23) is Speaker 3 (5:23) the problem in Speaker 1 (5:24) music? Speaker 3 (5:24) No problem, what is Speaker 1 (5:25) the Speaker 3 (5:25) challenge? How do we maintain the musicians? Because they are always very expensive. And somehow we had like a collaboration of musicians, of actors, of playwrights and all of these people coming together and creating it on stage. And... It made me extremely happy that stories in a song Because of that, so many actors and their journeys, I saw them and they started singing so well. Also the musicians, after that, you Speaker 4 (5:56) don't get Sada Malik's dates. Yes. So that too happened. Just a moment actually because you mentioned Amodji. Amod Bhatt is in the audience. And I think it would be fair to say that he is an institution in himself. And I think that there are actors not only in India but abroad who have trained under him. And in terms of Hindustani classical training, if anyone, the first name that is taken. So we're really privileged to have Mr. Amod Haq with us. Speaker 4 (6:22) And we will definitely include him later in something that we have planned. Sharvani, I know that you made your way into stories in a song at some point of time. We did a few shows of that. But where did you begin? Speaker 5 (6:33) I also, just like Namit, come from a musical family. My parents are musicians. Mom's a singer. Dad's a percussionist. My brother is a singer. So my brother used to come back from America and bring me music or bring me something that I can't find here. And one particular year, I think I was 14, he brought back a DVD of Rent, the musical. And it was the movie version. It was not the, you know, it was not a bootleg of the actual musical, but the movie itself actually kind of changed my life. I was like, what are they even doing? And if this is performed on stage and they all sing this music on stage, my brain couldn't process it. But right after school, when I moved to Bombay, Speaker 5 (7:21) Funnily enough, I accidentally, again making a long story short, stumbled upon a group of young people who sang for a play through my brother. And that play turned out to be a play called Girja Ke Sapne by M.S. Satya. And I just, I stumbled upon it. They were like, oh, we have one singer short, can you come? And I went in and I suddenly found myself part of a musical that I couldn't wrap my head around. before that and that was also 2007-2008 around that time. So that's where I started. But then I followed Sherly Satyoo who was the general secretary of IPTA at the time and she started her own repertory called Gillot theatre repertory and with Sherly we just continued to make Speaker 5 (8:09) plays that had so many types of forms of music and movement. I actually ended up working with Amur Ji also on a play called Taush Chaman Ki Maina. This was all of this was before I even got an education in theatre or even thought that I was going to do this full time. I didn't even know I was starting advertising on the side, but I was doing this. And back then, honestly, I did not know. that I'm part of something so big, I was just doing it as something I go to college, I go to rehearsal. That's what I would do. I didn't realize what I was a part of until, you know, much later and decided that I want to keep doing it. I never stopped working or singing in plays or musicals since. So that's how. And then years later, actually, I found my way into one show of stories in a song, which was really lucky. Yeah. That's how it happened. Speaker 4 (8:58) AMIT Speaker 5 (8:58) BANDEY- Lovely. Speaker 4 (8:58) . AMIT BANDEY- International. Amit, what about you? I mean, of course, everybody now know. I mean, it's good that you reminded .. Because I love that show. But I think that Pia Behroopia was a big turning point. But how did it start for you, this journey of music and theater? Speaker 6 (9:22) I understood it in drama school. I went to NSD. There, I did plays, musical plays and all. Before coming to NSD, I thought I know a lot of music. So, there are two types of singers. One who knows songs. One who knows songs and the other one who doesn't. Right? So in singing, it's often that you put your breath in it, that they will say, so your career is over. Right? So I got my whole batch like this in drama school. So I came, I thought I was fine in my city, I used to steal songs and music of Machis Machis and make something in my city, it was fine, life was going well. Then suddenly you reach drama school, where a lot of people are working. Speaker 6 (10:08) So, you have a lot of faces in the beginning. So, you thought, keep it, you make it. So, nothing came in my way. Somehow, I thought, I'll make it sound good. Then, Swanan Kerkere was doing Aosathi Sapna. His audition was going on. Of course, my batchmates were there. So, no one was calling me. He doesn't know music. He won't do it. Then, I remember, I reached the audition finally. I got to know that this drama was going to happen. I reached there after a long time. Sonam said, do you know how to sing? I sang one song loudly. She said, okay, sing something else. I said, I have been singing for the past 5-6 years. If you can, then go ahead. I don't know how she got into it. The whole festival was affected but it was very impactful. Speaker 6 (10:58) Swatul hated that play but then he called me in Pia Baharupia. So, just like that, nobody likes my work but some things keep going on. Speaker 2 (11:12) So, Speaker 4 (11:12) yeah. Speaker 4 (11:14) You directed Aladdin for the Indian stage, which Taruk was one of your Aladdin's and Mantra was one of your genies. And that was a massive production. And you have now done Raj Adi Raj, which is also a huge musical production. So you're one of the leading musical theatre people. So how did that happen? It's all Speaker 7 (11:41) a little jumbled up, the process. Final outcome was to become an engineer. But thankfully, music training came when I was very young, in school. Theatre, I discovered doing Nookkar Natak in Delhi University. If you have gone to Delhi University, you can't stay away from theatre. You'll reach there from somewhere. So that came. Then there was Kingdom of Dreams in Gurgaon that came up. this massive venue. It had three theatres and they were looking for young actors. So fresh college passouts and I was called to be an actor and I said that was only out of desperation in college for extra credit. I am not an actor but if you are looking for an AD, let me know. So they said yes, our director is from West End but we need somebody to communicate with the rest of the team. English should be there. I said yes, this is there. And that was my first job, basically translate from him to the rest of the team if anyone's having difficulty. But the things that I saw here, I held on to that job with both my hands because Vikrant and Virav who were there, who were my mentors in that sense, I just was like, what is, I did not know theater could be this. I've said this before, my interview was on the stage, just make pit tha. And Vikrant said to me, are you afraid of heights? I said, no. He said, then come here, talk to me, I'm checking this. And a 14-foot prop elephant came out from below. And I couldn't care what he's asking. I just wanted to be a part of this room. It was fascinating. So now I know these bits and pieces. I know scale. I know music. Then I come to Bombay. My first show ever that I've seen in Bombay is Stories in a Song. And there I have live singing actors on stage. I was like, what is this? What is happening? What is this? And thankfully, Disney came. It was around the time that Disney started to do live musicals here. And their first was Beauty and the Beast. And there, we were looking for that triple threat, which again was a new concept for me. But that is two or three, four of them sitting here. Actor, singer, dancer. All three talents. But the new skill, which was... Live singing, again, a lot of technical things with that. You have 17 actors on stage singing live. You have so many dancers. So it's been a learning process. Speaker 4 (14:07) Lastly, the triple threat. Yes. So this is acting, singing, and dancing. You dance as well, is it? Speaker 1 (14:16) So if I'm really made to, I'll dance. Otherwise, not so much naturally. Even in Aladdin, what had happened is I actually landed up there as a very, very unprepared actor for musical theatre. I wasn't really qualified to do any of the things that Shruti and Vikrant made me do. It's, to be honest, it's... Imagine a... two year, bhaag mil ka bhaag type montage. He's Speaker 7 (14:49) not exaggerating. No, no, Speaker 1 (14:50) I'm not kidding. Of me learning every single thing there is to learn. And somehow, just about getting on stage. So it wasn't like I landed up there and the triple threat term was used. In fact, I don't think it was ever used. Speaker 1 (15:15) But when I landed up there, I realized that how hard it actually is to perform A, on a certain level of just production with you. Because it's not just you who's doing anything. Everything you do, every move you make influences another move. If I raise my hand at the wrong time, the wrong light will come on at the wrong time. It used to be like that. I can forget a line or so, but I can't really make other decisions based on my whims. So there it was Speaker 4 (15:53) like... Mantra? Speaker 1 (15:54) Huh? Mantra was the James Bond of that play. He had the license to kill. He could do anything. Anything he wanted. But we had Speaker 7 (16:11) a direct line to Mantra in his in-ear. There was a reason. It's not just music. It is to say, Mantra, no, Mantra, shush, shush, come back, come back. Speaker 1 (16:19) You know, it's true. I think he was the most natural fit in that character where we all arrived as, let's prep for our parts and Mantra walked in as genie. Speaker 3 (16:30) Like, Speaker 1 (16:30) we still had to, you know, okay, how do we become this person? How do we look like this person? How do we walk like this person? Mantra was... He was granting wishes as he walked through doors. So it was very different. For example, for me, in the morning, we had a vocal session for three hours. After that, they used to send me for Kapu Era training. I used to break there. After that, I used to come for an acting session. I used to mentally break there. After that, I used to go for dance. I used to humiliate there. After that I used to go to the gym. And after that if I was left with a life, I reached home. Speaker 6 (17:13) What used to happen there? What used to happen in the gym? In the gym... My revenge. The day's revenge Speaker 1 (17:22) that I couldn't take out anywhere else. So I used to take that out in the gym. You Speaker 4 (17:25) had