A platform for languages: How regional theatre is surviving in Mumbai

In 2007 backstage at a small theatre in Mumbai Vinod Ranganath watched his Malayalam play unfold before a crowd of mostly Malayalis The familiar dialogue and cadence filled the hall like an echo of home Yet he knew this would be a onetime show ldquoYou canrsquot expect them to come for the same play twicerdquo he says ldquoAnd once the shows stop the language stops being heardrdquoA theatre veteran and a Malayali born in Mumbai Ranganath ventured into Malayalam theatre almost by accident inspired by his fatherinlaw who had once been part of a thriving community of Malayali theatre lovers ldquoMost people here are not aware that there are Malayalam plays happening in Mumbairdquo he says Finding fluent actors and steady audiences proved difficult Rehearsal spaces were scattered and marketing limited to community groupsVenues too were hesitant to host small linguistic productions that couldnrsquot guarantee commercial returns Without subtitles or crossover appeal Malayalam plays rarely reached beyond their own community ldquoOnly the Malayali will come see a Malayalam playrdquo he says ldquoSo after a point it just felt futilerdquo Then his voice softens ldquoTheatre is still where I feel most alive Doing Malayalam theatre took me back to my rootsrdquoMohit Agarwal right in his Urdu play Jo Dooba So PaarFrom a language being overshadowed by geography to one obscured by stigma Bhojpuri theatre in Mumbai drowns in a different kind of invisibility Actordirector Dilip Pandey has been staging Bhojpuri plays for nearly two decades determined to uplift a language long buried under its own caricatureOwing to a lack of contemporary literary voices in the language he says ldquoBhojpuri plays are difficult to portray because even Bhojpurispeaking people here are not well connected with their languagerdquo ldquoWe have been stereotyped with the pornographic images music and films associated with usrdquo he continues ldquoBhojpurirsquos story has lost its weight because of its vulgar tonality and representationrdquo In a city where Hindi Marathi and English dominate Bhojpuri is often dismissed as a ldquolowrdquo language its richness obscured by pop mediarsquos loud mimicryPandey recalls how even children from Bhojpurispeaking families at a BMC school hesitate to use it ldquoThey say itrsquos a dirty language Thatrsquos why I teach theatre so that they can understand and reconnect with their roots and take pride in their culturerdquoDilip Pandey pushes against stigma towards Bhojpuri through plays like Romeo Ravidas and Juliet Devi highlighting the beauty and history of the languageHis 2023 production Romeo Ravidas aur Juliet Devi used the rhythm and spirit of Bhojpuri while blending Awadhi for accessibility ldquoThe play had an Awadhi flavour so that more people understood itrdquo he says ldquobut its soul was entirely Bhojpurirdquo Through such work Pandey pushes back against decades of misrepresentation using theatre as a space to restore dignity and selfworth His question lingers long after if the theatre can repair what mass media distortsWhere these communities struggle for foothold Jaipurbased Ujaagar founded by Ajeet Singh Pallawat and Ipshita ChakrabortySingh has brought Marwari theatre to Mumbai from a cultural insistence ldquoWe make plays about different themes related to Jaipur We try to create theatre that has not been performed ever We try to dig into new scripts collaborate with new writers who have to say something to the world then infuse it with our culture be it the music or the culturerdquo he says Though not strictly a Rajasthani theatre group their work is anchored in its essence ldquoWe do a lot of Marwari plays whether storybased or adaptationsrdquo Their recent play Mithyasur is one such attempt to centre Rajasthani identity Both NSD graduates Pallawat and ChakrabortySingh were shaped by mentors who saw theatre as a vessel for preserving what mainstream culture forgets ldquoMumbai provided a good challenge for us to try newer things and perform it in a language not akin to Mumbairdquo he says But the struggle for visibility remains ldquoThere are very limited Rajasthani theatre activities in the city The struggle is mainly reaching audiencesrdquoUnlike other regional theatres in Mumbai Gujarati plays rarely struggle to fill seats For actordirector Mehul Joshi who has spent over two decades on stage success is rooted in a cultural habit ldquoWe have good quantities of audience where we do shows on weekends and contract showsrdquo he says ldquoIf a play goes well then we get a platform to perform it 15ndash20 times a month which other regional language theatres donrsquot getrdquoMehul Joshi and Deepak RajadhyakshaGujarati theatre enjoys infrastructure and consistency Auditoriums like Bhaidas in Vile Parle regularly host Gujarati productions while commercial comedies and family dramas thrive across suburban venues The audiencersquos appetite for light entertainment keeps the ecosystem vibrant if a bit conservative ldquoOur Gujarati audience mostly needs comedyrdquo Joshi admits ldquoLots of storytellers have tried to experiment with different stories Itrsquos accepted but we donrsquot get a lot of audience for itrdquoJoshi and his collaborator Nilesh Patel both Mumbaiborn Gujaratis have spent the past few years trying to modernise the form without alienating its base Their challenge however is generational ldquoPeople who have been watching plays since they were 20 are now 40rdquo he says ldquoIf the youth today does not stay active in the theatre scene soon there will be no new audiencerdquoAs of now Gujarati theatrersquos strength lies in its networks and audience loyalty that have kept it alive where others fade Itrsquos a foundation that reminds you how networks shape survivalVinod Ranganath after persistent attempts at reviving Malayalam theatre says that the lack of an audience led him to give up on it PicNimesh DaveFor director Mohit Agarwal who has been making plays for over a decade the languagersquos poetic roots are inseparable from its soul His Urdu play Jo Dooba So Paar codirected with Ajitesh Gupta wove Sufi philosophy and qawwalis into a trancelike narrative with a modern touch ldquoWe had to contemporise the play add jokes our generation relates tordquo he says ldquoI wouldnrsquot attempt a play completely in Urdu but we wanted to remind people of the beauty of the language while keeping it accessiblerdquoUrdu theatre once central to Mumbairsquos cultural rhythm began to fade after the 1980s Yet it continues to breathe quietly through college circuits intimate festivals and venues like Prithvi that encourage experimentation Agarwal acknowledges that audiences for nonHindi plays are rare and that ldquoeventually itrsquos lossmakingrdquo Still the cityrsquos alternate spaces and small collectives offer room to tryHe credits ldquonetworkingrdquo and collaborations with seasoned figures like Manav Kaul for helping Urdu theatre stay visible ldquoTheatre works where therersquos a performer and an audiencerdquo he says In a city of borrowed languages every stage becomes an act of translation One tongue keeping another aliveFinally the language that defines Mumbairsquos theatrical heartbeat mdash Marathi Few know this pulse better than playwright and director Deepak Rajadhyaksha who has helmed the experimental group Awishkar for over two decades Founded in 1971 Awishkar has championed Marathi theatrersquos more daring side staging plays that question provoke and reinventMarathi theatre remains the cityrsquos backbone sustained by an ecosystem of established venues state awards and a loyal audience base that fills auditoriums week after week Yet Rajadhyaksha points out that this strength is largely confined to commercial theatre The experimental wing though rich in ideas runs on little to no funding ldquoNo one gets paid Not our actors not our directors We pay for ourselvesrdquo he says explaining how smaller groups survive through workshops and passion aloneAcross Mumbairsquos theatres the divide is clear Marathi and Gujarati stages enjoy audiences venues and sponsors that keep them visible and relevant while smaller linguistic troupes like Malayalam Urdu and Tamil struggle to survive on love rather than logistics Their difficulties are not just artistic but infrastructural with no steady funding limited advertising reach and language barriers that make marketing near impossibleNevertheless the cityrsquos culture continues to offer a bridge Communityled festivals and consistent theatre lovers are helping these voices reach a space beyond linguistic walls Pandey says he continues because ldquoeven if twenty people watch and one feels something it is worth it Thatrsquos theatrerdquoTheatre festivals focus on lsquoqualityrsquoBruce Guthrie and Quasar Thakore PadamseeQuasar Thakore Padamsee founder of Thespo says the festival has always been languageagnostic with only two rules mdash participants must be under 25 and plays must be at least 60 minutes long Thespo has featured everything from Marathi Kannada Assamese Sanskrit and even Korean ldquoThe Indian experience is multilingual so the plays reflect thisrdquo he says While he has noticed a rise in regionallanguage entries possibly due to better outreach or young performers feeling more confident using their primary tongue Mumbairsquos youth theatre still leans toward English Hindi and MarathiAt the NCPA Bruce Guthrie Head of Theatre amp Films echoes the sense of widening linguistic space ldquoThis year alone wersquove presented work in 11 languages and attendance has risen across communitiesrdquo Revived festivals like Pratibimb and Vasant have been ldquoextremely well receivedrdquo with subtitles helping productions cross linguistic boundaries Yet challenges persist ldquoMany communities are used to lower ticket rates so productions often need subsidiesrdquo he notes Improved transport has eased earlier concerns about reaching the venue For Guthrie programming rests on one core principle ldquoQuality is paramountrdquo and the NCPA now supports a growing slate of Malayalam Tamil Kannada Assamese Urdu and Tibetan work with targeted outreach