Bharat Dabholkar: I always worry if TV, film actors can remember their lines on stage, but Shweta Rohira is fantastic

After musical plays like 'Blame It On Yashraj' and 'Bottoms Up', theatre writer-director Bharat Dabholkar's latest outing, 'That’s My Girl', explores a space that is very different from his previous works. The drama, produced by Mohan Azaad, which premiered in Mumbai last month, is a story of a daughter, who wants to act in Hindi films and in the process, comes across her father, who deserted her and her mother 20 years ago.An emotional and sensitive story, laced with humour, the play strikes a fine balance between emotions and laughter and explores the relationship between a father-daughter. It gives audiences a sneak-peek into the not-so-glamorous realities of Bollywood.
The play, which stars veteran actor Ananth Mahadevan and Ananya Dutta, is also Shweta Rohira's theatre debut. When BT asked Bharat how difficult it is to direct a newcomer, he shared, "I have worked with Ananth and Ananya earlier, and both of them bring their vast experience of theatre. Shweta, on the other hand, was a complete newcomer on stage. I always worry if actors from films and television can remember their lines and hold on to a character for over two hours at a stretch. But Shweta is fantastic. She has worked very hard and has been performing on stage like a veteran. She was as much a surprise to me as she has been to the audiences, who can't seem to stop falling in love with her. Personally, it's not difficult for me to direct a newcomer. Since I am the writer and the director of my plays, the characters and their variations are written in the script for the actors to follow. They only have to be told the knack of stage movement and positions and if it's a comedy play, then the art of riding the audience laughter and taking pauses in such a way that it’s not noticeable, and they don't miss out the next dialogues. That's not a difficult thing to learn and if a newcomer is sincere and hardworking, like Shweta is, it's doable from the very beginning."
Ask the writer-director why he chose to stage a play like 'That's My Girl', which is very different from the large-scale musicals that he has been associated with and he shares, "I am happy doing big musicals and laugh riots, but I like to do different kinds of plays because I like the little change of flavour. I have done a serious play like 'Purush' as well as a magnum opus like 'Shivaji The Enigma', which had a three-storey set, 250 performers and live elephants and horses! I just do what catches my fancy at that time. I don’t have any compulsion to try different formats. As long as they are fun, I will do them. Actually, I am more fond of rehearsals than I am of actual performances."
With many theatre groups in Mumbai experimenting with different drama formats, is Bharat game to dabble in newer formats too, or would he rather stick to traditional forms? "I have always experimented with theatre. I did the first full-length play in Hinglish, when producers were scared of producing a play in this 'alien' language. I worked with people from Marathi, Hindi and Gujarati theatre, who were scared to speak in English. I wrote an English lavani, English bhangda, English Ganesh Vandana, an Antakshari of Hindi songs with English words and even did a medley of English qawwalis. So, as long as they are fun to do, I keep experimenting," Bharat signs off.