Vinaya Walavalkar – Mantri

I have not only been active in the field of theater but also been interested in watching dramas and movies. A few months ago, I happened to watch a drama in Mumbai by the name of Mughal-E-Azam, inspired by the famous movie having the same name. The drama is produced by (NCPA) National Centre for Performing Arts – a very reputed institute. Just like the movie, the drama also had grandeur. Everything about the drama was worth a watch. The lights, sound, costumes, music were mind blowing. Added to this was the live singing by the artists. I count myself as the ‘chosen one’ to have watched the spectacular extravaganza, and I say so because I was lucky to get a pass for this drama, as the ticket cost for the same runs in thousands. The interesting part is that most of the shows of Mughal-E-Azam run houseful. Charging high ticket rates for the drama is absolutely justified because the production cost for this runs into crores of rupees. To manage the economics, such a price can be termed as fair, because if the economics of ‘returns’ fail, then even an extraordinary performance goes into dark. There have been examples where some good dramas had to be discontinued due to the shortage of funds.
And this is what made me think of the overall structure of the drama-theatre culture. I feel that winds of change are blowing even here. Even the lookout of an artist towards ‘drama’ has changed and the change in the era seems to be responsible for all this. Long years ago, there were hardly any mediums of entertainment but now they are in plenty. Morever, times are changing and everyone seems to be in some haste. Everyone is following a ‘two minutes’ or ‘instant’ culture. The same holds true for artists. Artists are also part of the same society that is on a lookout for instant fame and money and they get this from television or cinema. Also, a drama consumes lot of time. Readings, rehearsals etc seem to consume a lot of time. Added to it are the tours of the drama. Not many performers seem to be interested in wasting time behind all this. Just for a performance of two-three hours, the efforts don’t seem to be justified. But is this a real waste of time? Because after spending so many hours in rehersals, an actor gets into the skin of the character he has to play. An actor gets developed. But again the question is ‘at what cost?’. Are the earnings from a drama sufficient. So again our sympathies lay with the artists.
As against this, time isn’t wasted when it comes to a movie or television. A couple of ‘takes’ and the shot is ok. Also, there is no live audience to monitor your performance, so there is always an option of a retake just in case the scene is not ok. And more importantly, the ‘per day’ remuneration takes care of the artists. So, there is no reason, why he or she should not deviate from a drama.
Years ago, many artists took up theatre and after years of performing there, they took up television or cinema. But of late, the trend has reversed. Morover, there is competition among television channels. They require fresh faces everyday. They don’t have time to wait for people to get seasoned and then accept them. So, most of the ‘picks’ are from inter-collegiate competitions. They are more than happy to play a lead role in a soap or a movie. Then these so called ‘hero-heroines’ get busy with earing fame and money from television or movies and are hardly able to devote time to theatre. They get back to stage only when they have some filler time gap between serials or cinemas. Of late, many artists are returning back to drama as a status symbol.
But for all this the blame doesn’t entirely fall on the artists. Even the viewers and the audience are to be blamed for the same. They want entertainment without spending much time and money. Watching a movie sitting home is more convenient. A few months after release, a movie is shown on some or the other movie channel. For the impatient ones, there is always a pirated version. Dependancy on TV has also reduced with mobile apps replacing them.
You need not watch a cinema restricting yourself to a particular place. Also the pause button gives you the liberty to watch it whenever you want to. But the same doesn’t hold true for a drama. There is no way in which the audience can start, pause or stop a drama. And hence this culture seems to be fading away. Is there any instant solution to stop all this. Till the time we get one, lets keep watching drama and uphold this culture.