He loves to create an illusion and take his audiences into a different era with his lavish sets and larger-than-life outdoor productions; but in real life Aamir Raza Husain, the veteran theatre maverick, likes to follow the modest way. When we met the Padma Shri awardee off-stage with his wife and theatre actor Virat, who is travelling with the troupe to stage their latest production The Urge, the couple revealed interesting stories about their journey.
The Urge, based on a story of mistaken identity of an opera singer, was staged at ITC Maurya on Sunday. It was even more special for Virat and Aamir, as it was the last leg of this play, and Delhi is where the story started.
Speaking about what’s the most endearing aspect of performing in the capital, a cheerful Virat says, “There is no difference between the audiences in the entire country, but this is home. We have a floating population, so from Bengaluru to Mumbai to Delhi you find the same people at times.”
Asked about the popularity of theatre in recent years, Aamir affirms that it has been flourishing in the last 15 years and it’s on the brink of becoming an industry. He says, “People don’t buy tickets if your show is not good. Those who complain about not getting sponsorship or not selling enough tickets are actually not good. That’s a very pompous statement to make, but by the grace of God we have always seen people come all the way to watch a good show. Why else would they attend a show on a Sunday morning and queue up to watch a play? The kind of people who are here today are not the ones who come for free beer and a sandwich.”
While speaking about the effort that goes behind a large-scale production, he mentions, “We don’t do rock shows that we need a capacity of 5,000 audience. Be it a lavish set or a simple set-up, the effort is the same. The level of happiness that we get from our audience is what defines the success. One has to be true to their craft. I feel there are just two genres in theater, one is good and the other is bad. Where you are unable to be true to your craft, that is bad theatre.”
Being in the same profession there are bound to be creative clashes, but Virat clarifies, “I won’t say we have clashes; we have been working together for 18 years. Over the period of time we have found a hit-and-trial method. We have worked together for so long, and we follow simple rules so that there is a similar path. Sometimes there is difference of opinion but that is more like whether this gesture would work or that. Or while deciding the colour of the set or costumes.”
Before signing off Aamir hints at their new plays in 2013, and says, “We are working on two plays — Murder (a mystery-thriller) and Teardrop in Time (love story of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan).”