Sailesh Ghelani Actor, Writer Which is the last best play you saw and why? Well, I saw a lot of 10-minute plays at the Short+Sweet Festival in which I participated this year. I particularly liked THE FIRST FIREWORKS and O TERI. Your favourite adda to see a play NCPA Your favourite play-character The Phantom of the Opera A play you would like to see filmed. Why? The play I wrote for Short+Sweet 2012 called FORGIVEN. It’s my first play as a writer and a director and people really liked the script. A novel/short story you would like to see on stage? Why? Chuck Palahniuk’s ‘Damned’ adapted for the stage because it’s a wicked piece with loads of humour and clever insights on life and death and everything in between. A play, which is over-hyped DINNER WITH FRIENDS A play character you would like to “dialogue” with… Dorothy from THE WIZARD OF OZ. I want to ask her if she’d have preferred the ruby red slippers in stilettos instead ☺ A play that changed your perception about the theatre PHANTOM OF THE OPERA How do you regard the Mumbai theatre scene? Flooded with too many ‘comedies’ and not enough mystery and drama stories. Also, we really need better productions and sets. Musicals are a joke here. If you have ever been a part of a theatre production/s, can you recall an event that was insightful, significant or simply humorous? I acted in the Short+Sweet festival last year as well in a play called FAT LAZY BUMPY. I played a TV and the girl played a remote control; sort of a romance story between them. It’s significant because we became really good friends in real life too and I’m happy that through this process of creation and expression you can also connect with new and interesting people, which ultimately enriches your life. Can you think of a foreign production that you found remarkable? Why? Most of them. Even if they don’t have great scripts. The actors, the production values and the drama they imbue in each production, it is awe-inspiring. I loved LES MISÉRABLES and PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. The sheer magnitude of these productions, the brilliance of the music and dance, the feeling of being transported to a whole new world, is just unbelievable. A significant Indian production that you may have witnessed… So far, nothing has been significant for me on the Indian front. But then, I do need to watch a lot more theatre here. Life in the theatre without the humble batata-wada or the cutting chai… or can you recall the best gastronomic experience you’ve had in the precincts of the theatre to date? I feel the coffee shop at Prithvi Theatre is overrated frankly. I did have some nice Achari Kebabs before the Short+Sweet finale from The Café at the NCPA. They were good but then I was also ravenous!   read / post your comments More Speaks Aakanksha Gade Abhishek Pattnaik Adhaar Khurana Adhir Bhat Theatre Speak Aish Pandit Theatre Speak Ajitesh Gupta Akanksha Gupta Akarsh Khurana Akriti Singh Akshat Nigam Akshay Shimpi Aman Gupta Aman Gupta Theatre Speak Amit Behl Amol Parashar Anand Tiwari Ankit Soni Anubha Fatehpuria Apara Mehta Archana Patel Nandi Arghya Lahiri Arnesh Ghose Arun Kakade Aseem Hattangady Ashish Saleem Ashutosh Potdar Ashwin Gidwani Asif Ali Beg Atul Kumar Atul Satya Koushik Azaad Bhakti Rathod Bhushan Korgaonkar Bijon Mondal Boman Irani Brajesh Hirjeev Chaitanya Tamhane Charudatta Bhagwat Chirag Vohra Theatre Speak Chitralekha Rathod Chitransh Pawar Cyrus Dastoor Damini Kanwal Danesh Irani Darrshan Jariwalla Debobrata Banerjee Deepika Deshpande Amin Deesh Mariwala Delna Patel Devika Shahani Punjabi Dhanendra Kawade Theatre Speak Dharmendra Gohil Dhruv Lohumi Dilnaz Irani Dinesh Thakur Dinyar Tirandas Divya Jagdale Divya Palat Dolly Thakore Faezeh Jalali Theatre Speak Gaurav Singh Geeta Manek Theatre Speak Gurleen Judge Hardik Sangani Harsh Desai Harshal Singh Hidayat Ali Sami Hilda David Himanshu Singh Howard Rosemeyer Hridaynath Jadhav Hussaini Dawawala Huzan Wadia Imran Rasheed Inaayat Ali Sami Ira Dubey Ishitta Arun Jagdish Rajpurohit Jaimini Pathak Jaimini Pathak1 Jameel Khan Janak Toprani Jasvinder Singh Jayati Bhatia Theatre Speak Jaydeep Apte Jim Sarbh Joy Fernandes Joy Sengupta Jyoti Vyas Kajal Gadhia Kamlesh Mota Kamlesh Oza Karthik T M Ketan Karande Khanjan Thumber Kulvinder Bhakshish Kumud Mishra Kyla D'Souza L J Mehta Theatre Speak Lillete Dubey Lubna Salim Maanvi Gagroo Mahabano Mody Kotwal Manali Kale Manasi Prabhakar Joshi Manaswini Lata Ravindra Mandar Chandwadkar Maneesh Verma Manish Gandhi Mansi Multani MD Pallavi Meena Vaibhav Theatre Speak Meenal Patel Meher Acharia Dar Meherzad Patel Mikhail Sen Mohit Agarwal Mohit Sharma Mujeeb Khan Nageen Tanvir Nagesh Bhosale Naman Mukherji Namit Das Namrata Pathak Theatre Speak Naseeruddin Shah Naushil Mehta Naushil Mehta (Part II) Nazneen Madan Neelam Gheewala Neha Singh Nipun Dharmadhikari Nivedita Baunthiyal Om Katare Omkar Bhatkar Padma Damodaran Parag Dubey Paromita Chatterjee Pathy Aiyar Pradnya Shastri Prajakt Deshmukh Pramod Pathak Pranati Prakash Rai Pranay Gupta & Sohini Gupta Pratik Gandhi Pratik Kothari Pratima Kulkarni Preeta Mathur Pritesh Sodha Priyanshu Painyuli Quasar Thakore Padamsee Radha Bhardwaj Rahul Antani Rahul Valmiki Raj Yadav Rajeev Ravindranathan Rajendra Gupta Rajit Kapoor. Rajit Kapur Rajiv Krishnan. Rajshri Ponappa Theatre Speak Rakesh Sharma Ramu Ramanathan Rasika Agashe Ravish Rathi Revaa Rach Rohini Bhatia Singh Rohit Tiwari Rupak Batish Sahil Jaffrey Saif Hyder Hasan Saleem Shah Theatre Speak Sameer Khandekar Theatre Speak Sananda Mukhopadhyaya Sandesh Kulkarni Sanjaay Khapare Sanket Angane Sapan Saran Satchit Puranik Satyajit Sharma Saurabh Shukla Sayeed Alam Scherazade Kaikobad Sejal Pondaa Shadab Kamal Shailesh Gelani Shaili Sathyu Theatre Speak Shamath Majumdar Sharmila Velaskar Kadne Shernaz Patel Shiv Subrahmanyam Shiv Tandan Shivam Sharma Shivani Tanksale Shubhrajyoti Barat Shyam Bhimsaria Shyam Kishore Siddharth Kumar Siddharth Menon Sneh Sapru SONAL MATHUR Theatre Speaks Suchitra Pillai Sudeep Modak Suhaas Ahuja Sukant Goel Sumit Kaul Sunil Prem Vyas Sunil Shanbag Suruchi Aulakh Sushama Deshpande Tasneem Fatehi Tavish Tom Alter Trishla Patel Tushar Pandey Tusharika Rajguru Ulhas Shirke Utkarsh Mazumdar Vaibhav Kapatia Vandana Sajnani Veena Bakshi Vidyagouri Honnavar Vikram Kapadia Vikram Kapadia (II) Vikrant Dhote Vinay Varma Vipul Mahagaonkar Vivek Madan Vivek Tandon Zubin Driver    Discussion Board

Schedule Theatre Workshops Register a workshop | View all workshops

List Your Play

Get theatre updates in your inbox
subscribe to Mumbai Theatre Guide weekly updates