After graduating in Chemistry from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, Ashwin Gidwani started as an Executive for Laezer Production – a Division of United Television, as Production Executive in July ’89. He later went on to create his own production and entertainment company, Clowns “R” Us India Pvt. Ltd. Over the past twelve years, Clowns “R” Us India Pvt. Ltd. (CRUIPL) has been in the business of creating, conceptualizing and producing plays in India. Comedy, spoof, rib tickling revues and old fashioned family values have been the core elements of plays such as Circus, Oh No! Not Again!!, Monkey Business and Funny Thing Called Love. He has worked in tandem with writers and directors like Bharat Dabholkar, Sam Kerawala, Karla Singh, Vijay Kenkre and the late Prof Vasant Kanetkar. Not restricting the theatrical experience to the adults, CRUIPL has produced exclusive productions for children such as Magic Ball, Enchanted Forest and Punch-A-Tantra the children’s musical.Since the past two years his productions have been touring the U.K., Europe, U.S.A., the Far East, Middle East and Sri Lanka. His company has taken on the onus of producing and organizing the Mumbai Theatre Utsav, which he hopes, will urge many Mumbaikars to partake of theatre. The following conversation with Ashwin centers on this upcoming festival.
Whose idea is the Mumbai Theatre Utsav? Colonel Sawant and Kamal Morarka of the Mumbai Festival Committee are in charge of the Mumbai Utsav. This is Mumbai Utsav’s second year. Last year’s Utsav did not include theatre. Siddharth Kak therefore suggested that I meet Colonel Sawant. Our meeting turned out to be very successful as I realized that Colonel Sawant shared our vision about the theatre. He too is keen to promote theatre just as we are.
Is the Mumbai Festival Committee a part of the government? This festival is a wonderful example of the government working in collaboration with a private company. Both the government of Maharashtra and the Central government are backing this festival.
Why Mumbai Theatre Utsav, given that interested theatergoers in Mumbai see the plays they choose to in any case? Why not for instance, a theatre Utsav that would offer a selection of plays from across the country which otherwise would not be possible for many Mumbaikars to see? I was actually given the choice to do what I wanted in this theatre Utsav. I could have invited plays from not only different parts of the country but also from other countries across the world. But I am conservative when it comes to planning. The reason being that I believe theatre must be done right. I cannot settle for substandard work. To organize a good theatre festival is a logistical nightmare. This being the first year, I decided to take it easy. We have 58 productions in six languages at one venue this year. Next year, we will have more and some of them will be international productions. Likewise in year three we will continue to expand our goals. Eventually, I wish the Mumbai Theatre Utsav to be something like the Edinburgh Fringe.
What are your personal reasons for supporting this festival? My greatest concern is to get the people of Mumbai back to the theatres. The onslaught of satellite television and Bollywood has been tremendous. I want more and more people to enjoy theatre. To that end, my production company has been publicizing this festival in schools, colleges, on road shows, etc. The tickets too are heavily subsidized so that everyone can afford to see these plays. Price can be a deterrent when it comes to- let us say a family of four who want to see a play.
What do you think of the plays selected by the advisory panel? Our advisory panel has on board some very respected people in the theatre fraternity in India today. I first sought help from Vijaya Mehta who is on the panel too. We soon had other members and they together selected this cross-section of plays to be presented at the festival. My opinion of the plays therefore rests on the decision made by the panel. They are a creative lot whose knowledge of the theatre far extends mine. I am primarily a producer whose skills lie in managing the show.
Like other festivals, will the Mumbai Theatre Utsav have workshops, lectures or discussions centering on the theatre? Yes there are workshops although I cannot give you the detailed information of the same right now. But perhaps it would suffice to say that we have theatre people like Salim Arif, Alyque Padamsee, Javed Siddiqui, Mahesh Dattani and others who will be conducting the workshops.
How do you anticipate the audience response to be? Rocking. Awesome. Big time. We are going to have a blast. This festival is a wonderful opportunity to bring people together and to promote theatre. Our aim is to turn the non-theatergoer into a theatergoer. These days, I eat, sleep and breathe this festival.
I was actually given the choice to do what I wanted in this theatre Utsav. I could have invited plays from not only different parts of the country but also from other countries across the world. But I am conservative when it comes to planning. The reason being that I believe theatre must be done right. I cannot settle for substandard work. To organize a good theatre festival is a logistical nightmare. This being the first year, I decided to take it easy. We have 58 productions in six languages at one venue this year. Next year, we will have more and some of them will be international productions. Likewise in year three we will continue to expand our goals. Eventually, I wish the Mumbai Theatre Utsav to be something like the Edinburgh Fringe.
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