CHENNAI: The audience is at the core of every performance, in some way or the other. Whether it is a film, a play, or a dramatised reading, success depends very much on the performance at the box office, as it were.
But interactive theatre is a little more than that — it draws the audience into the performance, allowing them to choose the way the narrative flows.
Vijay TV’s serial Saravanan Meenakshi , which has run for about 800 episodes and spans at least three generations, is trying this strategy to decide the future of its protagonist. The channel has asked viewers to choose one of two suitors that Meenakshi, the current protagonist, can marry.
“We are planning to shoot both scenarios — what marriage to each of the men would mean. Once we get the responses from viewers, we will use the appropriate footage. The other can be used as part of a director’s cut, as a fun aspect,” says S. Ramanan, assistant vice-president, Vijay TV.
He says a lot of responses have already come in via text messages and on the site, but the answer will be revealed only after the deadline.
Earlier in the serial, the audience was asked to guess who the senior Meenakshi (the current heroine’s mother) would marry. “Interactive is not completely new to us, but we are taking it a little further ahead with this,” Mr. Ramanan adds.
