Theatre practitioner Ashvin Gidwani, known for giving a fillip to commercial theatre, says he is deeply concerned with the fact that there is no system in place to ensure that budding artists get a remuneration.
And due to this, creative people are joining the Hindi film industry, he says.
His company, Ashvin Gidwani Productions, has expanded the reach of Indian theatre from metropolitan cities to 17 different cities in India and 12 countries. He believes that theatre is all about experience and that you have to make an extra effort to ensure that your customer is satisfied.
Excerpts from an interview:
Why do you talk about commercialisation of theatre in India? How did you achieve it? How did you bring commercialization commercialisation of theater theatre in India?
It was quite simple. Our passion for theatre led us to bankruptcy thrice. We had nothing more to lose and only experience to gain. That was when the idea of commercialisation dawned on me. I set out to find production costs, profit margins, brand and engagement.
Do you think that the migration of talent from theatre to Bollywood could see a change in coming times?
The problem lies in the fact that theatre does not pay enough. Every actor has to take up a second creative job to sustain themselves in an expensive city like Mumbai. Sadly, our country till date has no structure to support budding artists financially. Thus, the shift of talent from theatre to Bollywood is majorly due to financial reasons and not due to lack of interest in theatre.
How have you expanded Indian theatre to overseas?
We have taken our troupes to the United Kingdom, travelled 3,000 miles across various countries and done over 400 shows in last 12 years. We are also planning to do another 100 shows in USA next year. We currently perform in 12 countries. Our productions, such as Monkey Business, Blame It On Yashraj, Mad About Money and Punch-a-Tantra, have received exceptional response from local as well as foreign audiences. The key reason for our expansion is that we are targeting performance arenas apart from conventional theatre performance. We perform for private shows, dinner theatre as well as high-end business conferences.
Do you think Indian theatre is now as dynamic as Indian cinema?
Seven to ten years ago, if a Shah Rukh Khan or Salman Khan film was releasing on the same date as our show, we constantly dreaded if we will get any audience or not. Now the scenario is different. We no longer align our shows according to major movie releases. Loyalty and quality is our mantra. We produce shows nothing short of notch and make sure that we market it to the theatre loving customer.
How do you think Indian audience is towards theatre work?
Indian audience, I feel, wants to be pampered. If anything were to come between them and watching a theatre performance, they would drop it and stay at home. Thus, it is necessary for us to ensure ease of access. We keep valets, ushers and all sorts of other services to ensure that the customer is comfortable. We were also the first production house to tie up with bookmyshow.com. We try to create end-to-end solutions for our customers.
