He says he likes to entertain – the bigger the stage, the better. No wonder then that techie Rahul Sasidharan chose the theatre itself to express his creativity. Rahul, a native of the city, who now works at Infosys, Bangalore, spearheads Ananya, an informal theatre troupe comprising more than 200 young IT professionals working in various companies across South India. For the last three years now Ananya, which means unmatched, has been staging full-fledged musical dramas, written, scripted and directed by Rahul, to raise money for charity.
“We do it simply for the love of it,” gushes Rahul, his pleasure radiating down the phone line. It sure doesn’t seem like an easy thing to ‘do’, especially considering the infamous work load of techies. “It does take quite a lot of commitment on all our parts to present the two-three hour plays that are a blend of dance, music, comedy, drama, and fun. We never interrupt our work schedules, instead we work around it. We start rehearsals after work, often after 9 p.m. and at times it goes on till the early hours of the morning. There have been days when we rehearse all night and then go straight to work. We practise on weekends and often give up our holidays. Each play requires a minimum of four months of rehearsal. It’s quite a struggle...,” adds Rahul. The troupe also perform choreographed dances and stage modelling shows.
Ananya, which started off as a part of Infosys Bangalore’s ‘Parichay’ cultural fete, now performs under the aegis of Educate & Emancipate, a Chennai-based NGO, which was also started by a group of techies from Amrita Institute of Technology, Coimbatore, and which helps students from economically disadvantaged families with financial support for their higher studies. The troupe debuted with the play When You Fall In Love (2010). “It’s a romantic musical that winds its way through some of the greatest love stories of all time such as Romeo-Juliet, Salim-Anarkali, Devdas and even Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge !” says Rahul, a graduate of the Sree Chithira Tirunal College of Engineering, Pappanamcode, who seems to have a gift for the gab and a sense of humour that’s guaranteed to keep you in splits. “I work in sales; it comes in handy,” he says with a hearty laugh. “The dialogues for the plays are written the way I talk,” he adds.
Rahul’s other two plays seem to have interesting themes too. “A bunch of core team members of the troupe sit down with me and discuss the general theme for each play and then I sit down and write it,” says Rahul.
India A-Z , staged in 2011, is the tale of a young NRI kid’s discovery of India through the eyes of his grandfather. “We used letters of the alphabet to symbolise various facets of India. A for azadi (freedom), B for berozgar (unemployment), D for Doordarshan, P for pyar (love) and so on,” explains Rahul. This year’s play, though, which he wrote, and directed and danced for, is something more close to the heart. “Ever since my son, Madhav, was born, I’ve had fatherhood on my mind. And what better a story than Disney’s The Lion King ?” says Rahul. He adapted the tale into an Indian setting, and the play, The Return of the Lion King , narrates the tale of a young prince who is kidnapped by evil witches and finds himself in the future.
“I love watching movies and my favourites are the Malayalam movies of the ‘80s and ‘90s – Thoovanathumbikal , is a particular favourite. So you’ll see a lot of Satyan Anthikkad- Priyadarshan inspired elements in the plays. It’s all about fun and entertainment. The dialogues of the plays are in English, but the story is told through dances and songs – we use filmi numbers from all South Indian languages. This year we even had a Marathi song. Each play has 30 to 40 actors and around 150 dancers, including around a 100 women. It’s a massive task coordinating the whole thing,” says Rahul, who, nevertheless, seems to thrive on it.
