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Shekhar Suman sets up theatre academy

Shekhar Suman alongwith Om Katare, a renowned theatre personality has launched a theatre academy Silhouette which aims to produce minimum two Hindi plays in a year. The first play of the academy Woh Tum Hi Ho, written by Mir Muneer in which Shekhar Suman will play a pivotal role is scheduled to be staged in February-March next year.

Excited about the new venture Suman said that his dream was to create something like Prithvi or better still earn a reputation like Broadway “which people who visit the States make it a point to watch”. Besides staging plays, the academy intends conducting workshops for aspiring actors and playwrights. Conduction worshops is something whcih Katare has been doing for over two decades. He has been successfully running the Yatri theatre group which has staged many plays. Silhouette’s plays will also be directed by him. “We will invite outside directors to direct our plays,” Katare points out.

Another aim of Silhouette is to make theatre commercially viable. “Possibly get the plays sponsored,” says Katare. “We want to attract big names to the theatre, say someone like Dimple Kapadia who probably will get dream roles to play on theatre,” says Suman. The duo promises to enhance the production values of the plays, perform plays with good scripts and big names which will attract the audiences. “Unlike Marathi or Gujarathi which have a theatre running parallel to cinema, Hindi theatre is not that big. When we want to stage plays we have to beg for dates from theatres owners because on certain days only - Sundays, people watch a Hindi play. We want to change that,” explained Katare.

For Suman, theatre is like going back to his roots. “I started my career with theatre in Delhi. I did many plays for NSD’s repertory company before my first film Utsav came along,” he informs. Unsuccessful in his filmi career, Suman turned to television and emerged as the most successful telestar in recent times. Movers & Shakers, a stand-up comedy which he hosts five times a week is the first of its kind in India and consistently rates among the top five programmes of Sony. Come January, the show will be telecast live in front of a audience numbering upto 200-300. “It will be a ticketed show then and I would like to know how much people would shell out to see me,” chuckles Suman.

Absolutely delighted that his will be the first such show to go live in India, Suman is eagerly looking forward to it. “I am all prepared to take the national flak,” he laughs. He has no apprehensions or fear. “I’ll host the show more fearlessly. After all, it’s a lot more challenging,” he informs.

If Suman is busy with his stand-up show and serials and Katare is busy with Yatri how is the duo planning to pursue their dreams for Silhouette. Clarifies Suman, “Theatre is something I want to do so I better find time for it and even otherwise my serials and show don’t take so much of my time. I schedule them in that way.” As for Katare his new play for Yatri titled Mahasagar is due for rel-ease in November and once “the play starts I will be free for six months. During that time I will devote myself to Silhouette.”

CU