THREE DECADES of theatre and striving excellence in it is certainly not an easy task. Ask any passionate theatre lover, and one knows how difficult the nuances of the medium are. Nadira Babbar, along with her husband Raj Babbar, who heralded the theatre group Ekjute stands tall after thirty years of perseverance and love. Ekjute
started off as Nadira’s brainchild in 1981 when she decided to relocate to Mumbai from Delhi. Having graduated from National School of Drama, Nadira worked in Delhi for eight years and hadn’t even thought of forming her own theatre group. As a part of the celebrations of 30 years of Ekjute, a 10-day long extravaganza have been planned at Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai, which includes plays, performances, workshops and seminars.
“It sounds strange, but I’ve honestly planned nothing in my life. When I graduated, all I wanted to do was work and enjoy the art. I could identify with theatre and it was probably the only medium I was comfortable working with,” says Nadira reminiscing about initial days of her career. It was when she came to Mumbai, that she felt the need to do something on her own. “I had this strong urge to do have something of my own and various aspects of theatre challenged me. It was something I loved doing and didn’t really take it as work,” says Nadira.
She says that she has been fortunate enough to receive her husband’s support without which she wouldn’t have come this far. “Theatre as an art form has always struggled to meet ends and do well commercially. I could take to it without worrying too much about finances since my husband was doing very well in films and he told me to simply follow my heart. I didn’t have that burden or responsibility of running the house. And many a time, these are the issues that bog us down and prevent us from following our passion. Fortunately, I was able to devote that much of time and do well with the support I received from my family, friends and group members,” says Nadira. Theatre as a medium has its own plus points and shortcomings. After having performed over 60 plays in the last three decades, Ekjute has established as a name to reckon with in India.
“The journey has certainly seen many ups and downs, but I simply enjoyed it. Time flies and I didn’t even realise it’s been 30 long years of struggle, effort and happiness,” she says.
As a theatre group, Ekjute has produced plays and strived for excellence in the kind of work they produced. Ekjute has a repertoire of more than 75 actors, one of the largest in the country. It has provided a platform to some of the most outstanding actors of today. Actors of superior calibre such as Anupam Kher, Satish Kaushik, Alok Nath, Kirron Kher are all Ekjute alumni and started their initial days honing and showcasing their talent via the Ekjute platform. Nadira says that all her productions have been like special babies. “It is difficult to pick out some and say that these have been most memorable. But the ones that didn’t do well commercially remain close to my heart. Like Operation Cloudburst was one of the most important productions and well-written scripts to work on,” she said.
“After so many years, some of the problems continue to persist. I hope the government does something about granting subsidies to theatre. Finances are a major issue and I face hurdles every now and then on that front,” she says. But apart from that Nadira is at peace with life and theatre.
“Juhi and Arya have been huge source of support and have literally grown up with Ekjute. They’ve seen what I’ve gone through and it makes me happy to see them doing well today. As far as Ekjute goes, we are planning on expansion and branching out. We have a special theatre group only for children now and there are many other exciting plans on the anvil,” she says.