Before theatre doyen Satyadev Dubey passed away, he bequeathed his group, Theatre Unit, to Hidayat Sami, his disciple and associate of many years, a legacy both precious and onerous.
Since then like his mentor, Sami has been conducting free theatre workshops regularly, and producing plays such as ‘Magic Pill’ (written by Dubey) , ‘ The Doll’ and more recently, the children’s play ‘Medha Aur Zoombish’ (written by Ramu Ramanathan) under that banner. “More than 15 years after it was first performed, the play is still relevant. I know of a couple who forbade their child from playing with another child from a different religion,” he says, referring to the play’s theme of prejudice against the ‘other’. “When I do a play for children, I want to work on something that makes them think. I have nothing against fairy tales — I have directed ‘Peter Pan’ myself.”
Sami, known as Hida in the theatre community, is an ace lighting designer, has travelled the world with productions, toured a lot of exotic cities with dancer Astad Deboo and has worked “in all kinds of venues, from grand theatres and art galleries to people’s homes.”
When it comes to theatre, there is nothing he cannot do — except, maybe writing, for which he admits he has no talent. But he gets a little offended when his work as an actor and director is not adequately acknowledged. Still, his name is associated with lighting. He recalls with amusement, the time in Indonesia when the computerised lighting board blew up and he was the only one who knew how to operate a manual board.
His long and busy career in the theatre has taught him to accept any challenge, big or small. “The musical ‘Jaan-e-Jigar’ at Bollywood Park, in Dubai, is the biggest thing I have ever done. It had a huge budget and a big team with several technicians, stage managers and elaborate sets. After I returned to Mumbai, I did another Bollywood musical for the same producers (Wizcraft), where I was the drama director. I think Viraf Sarkari tried something new with ‘Balle Balle’ in terms of technology, and experimented with running a production for three months.”
He says that now many producers in Mumbai are planning big productions too. “We have the brains and the talent, but the infrastructure is not yet available, and there are fewer resources. It is difficult to convince someone in India to invest in a play with a budget running into crores. Also, there are no institutes that offer technical training to do the kind of productions that are done abroad. For a production like ‘Mughal-e-Azam,’ the technical experts came from the West.”
Learnt on the job
Like many others working in the field today, Sami (and his brother Inaayat, also a lighting designer, director and actor) learnt on the job. “I started acting with Naseeruddin Shah in ‘Julius Caesar,’ and he sent me to Dubeyji, with whom I remained till he passed away. I used to attend his workshops and assist him. Then I went with Naseerbhai to the National School of Drama as his assistant and watched him at work,” recalls Sami.
“Dubeyji told me I could not always get what I wanted as an actor, so I should do lighting and get better by observing actors. I found that I also had a flair for it and got a lot of work. Travelling with Astad and learning to light all kinds of spaces taught me to look at things differently. But if I get the right script and the resources, I would direct more plays. I would like to do plays that are both stylised and realistic. It all boils down to funding. I am a bad businessman and cannot plan these things,” he says.
During the 28-odd years that he has ploughed into theatre, Sami says that he has done 178 plays and in 70 per cent of them he was the lighting designer.
Hidayat Sami
“People often forget that I can act. I have done all kinds of roles — from a child to an elderly father. When Shiv Subrahmanayam cast me in ‘Snapshots Of An Album’ (a two-hander with Divya Jagdale), people asked him why he was casting me in a lead role. But Shiv had faith in me and later I did ‘Irani Café’ with him in which I did four parts. Most of my acting was learnt on the job. I picked up all the basics — speech, how to interpret the text and how to internalise a scene. I also learnt direction by watching and interacting with actors. This helped me better my acting,” he explains.
Sami feels that thanks to Internet, audiences have been exposed to the best of theatre from across the world. “So a lot of theatre artistes have upped their game. They pay more attention to lighting and other technical details. Earlier they used to say that the actor is doing it all, you just have to switch the lights on and off. Today professional designers are engaged. The audiences also have higher expectations.”
Sami believes that having worked on a variety of plays has made him flexible. “I understand what goes into production from every aspect, so I can adjust to any stage, budget and any constraint, without compromising on quality. I have also become more patient, which may actually be a curse,” he says.
Unlike many others from Mumbai’s stage, he has done advertisements, but never acted in a film. Sami says that he would, if he got a really good role. He would also direct a film if he got a chance. “In my house, there’s a shelf full of play scripts that I would like to direct and another full of film scripts — and their number keeps increasing,” he laughs.
The writer is a Mumbai-based author, critic and columnist
