After a gap of two years theatre director Feroz Abbas Khan is back on stage with his much-feted show Mughal-e-Azam: the musical to celebrate over 60 years of the iconic film.
This is the sixth year and the 18th season of the grand musical and we talk with Feroz about the same.
So Mughal e Azam is back after two years. Tell us what made you come back with it.
We never really went away. It is just that the pandemic arrived and we could not continue with the 18th season of the play as planned. When normalcy returned, we started receiving a lot of requests from audiences to revive the play and more importantly, the cast and the crew of Mughal-e-Azam began to feel that a part of their life had gone amiss without the excitement and joy that every new season brings with it. It was then that we started with renewed energy to stage it in Mumbai and then take it across the country and abroad.
What was your initial thought behind the musical?
The initial impulse was simply to celebrate India's syncretic beauty, its huge repository of musical and acting talent and the treasure of its cinematic memories on an unprecedented scale. I wanted to pay a tribute to the Indian traditions of powerful storytelling, exquisite choreography, timeless music, and matchless grandeur on a global stage. And what could be more inspiring than K. Asif’s masterpiece, Mughal-E-Azam to help us realize these ambitions.
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How difficult or easy it is to stage such an epic drama on the Indian stage?
Well, initially it seemed almost impossible to produce a musical with the level of complexity and scale that we wanted. To mobilise the resources, skilled artisans, a mammoth cast and crew seemed like an impossible task. Also, the niggling fear was that we would not be able to pay an adequate tribute to the musicality, opulence, and refinement of the film that remains a peerless work of art. Then came the challenge of finding a well-equipped venue that was capacious enough to accommodate our vision. But we got lucky when Shapoorji Pallonji, the producer of the original film, decided to produce the musical. With their support, we finally had wind beneath our wings.
Tell us about the cast?
The most difficult part was, of course, knowing that there would be inevitable comparisons with stalwarts like Prithviraj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Madhubala, and Nigar Sultana. The characters of Akbar-e-Azam, Shehzada Salim, Anarkali, Bahaar, Maan Singh, and Durjan are etched in people's memories and each generation discovers them anew. So, the quest was not about finding the replicas of these characters but to look for gifted actors who could commit to months of punishing rehearsals and an entire season of shows in India and abroad. We asked them not to imitate the stars of the film but to create their own interpretation of the characters with truth, honesty, and intimacy.
Tell us how the theatre scene is slowly evolving post pandemic?
Like everything else, theatre is crawling back to normalcy and what is really heartening to see is that the audiences have grown even more enthusiastic than ever before to experience live performances. This could be attributed to a need for shared experiences and organic, human connections after the fatigue of online and digital content during the pandemic.
What are your other upcoming projects. Please share in details
We are planning to travel internationally with Mughal-e- Azam in the near future and that will take up a lot of my time. But yes, there are many new ideas that I would like to explore and there will possibly be a new production sometime later next year.
From October 21-30
Tickets available from October 15 on BookMyShow
At Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir, Bandra West