Early this month at Mumbai’s Sophia Bhabha Auditorium, the scene was akin to the opening of a big film. The audience entered in droves, whistled at the entry of the actors, sang along, and drowned the curtain call in thunderous applause. Most members of this cheering crowd were there to bid farewell to a play that they’d watched before. The Company Theatre’s Piya Behrupiya is in its final run, with shows in different parts of the country. It opened in 2012, as a part of Globe Theatre’s Shakespeare festival. And for the last 11 years, it has travelled all over the world and built a following of the kind theatre-makers dream of.
The first time I watched this fiery adaptation of Twelfth Night in nautanki style was at the Ranga Shankara Festival in Bangalore, shortly after the Globe Theatre premiere. Seated in the first row, with a synopsis of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night as surtitles on the wings, I didn’t know what to expect. The only hint was the picture of Shakespeare with a crown and a lotus at the base with a baithak-like setup. I knew that it was going to be inherently Indian and filled with music. All the actors, including the director Atul Kumar’s then six-year-old daughter, took their positions on stage. There were musicians, too. The next two hours were electrifying and perhaps the singular theatre experience that got me hooked to the magic of the stage.
Sagar Deshmukh’s introduction lines as Orsino had the house burst into laughter. From then on, there was no stopping. The house laughed, cheered, and rose in applause together. Theatre, as we knew it, had changed, with the arrival of a contemporary performance that could bring down the house, every single time. This was a time when ‘interactive theatre’ was the buzzword being thrown around, but the traditional proscenium was still the norm. Piya Behrupiya was interactive in its own way and early on during the shows, people joined in to sing, dance, and even respond to Nagpal’s calls to the audience.
Such was Piya Behrupiya’s charm that I went back to watch it five times until the farewell tour. Besides marvelling at the text and the parade of talented actors, Piya Behrupiya became my way of introducing newbies to the magic of live performances. It ticked every box on the checklist including Shakespeare, and left a first-time viewer captivated. So much so that it became a ritual of sorts. While musicals have a way of letting viewers into their world with great bursts of energy, Piya Behrupiya never stopped at that. It told Indian audiences that Shakespeare was for everybody and it was okay to be confused with characters and names.
Amitosh Nagpal (the writer of the play and Sebastian), broke the fourth wall early on to put the audience at ease. He followed through as narrator, breaking down the complexities of the characters’ intentions but not without an endearing thread of his own. He complained, almost incessantly, and aired every grouse he had with the director, from having no more than four lines in the play to being made to adapt it at short notice. Nagpal once revealed to me that what seems like a masterstroke now was a rehearsal-room complaint that made its way to the script. Piya Behrupiya is filled with several such moments and stories that make you fall in love with the characters and the actors behind them. They stay on stage at all times, returning to the elevated baithak after each entry. This keeps the performance alive and energetic and produces moments of hilarity where none existed.
Piya Behrupiya is unapologetic and doesn’t shy away from puns, regional stereotypes, and in some cases, mildly cringe humour. It is the kind of play that goes far to include the non-theatre-goer. No wonder then that the shows are booked days in advance, and fans simply can’t get enough. It made not just Shakespeare but theatre approachable to a crowd that would otherwise find itself at odds in a conventional theatre space. It created a unique space for well-intentioned, well-produced theatre that was unabashedly entertaining. Such has been its impact that years later, glimpses of its style are visible in the work of cast members; Saurabh Nayyar’s musical Golden Jubilee and Amitosh Nagpal’s own Mahanagar Ke Jugnu come to mind.
While this isn’t the first-time director Atul Kumar has managed to do this, it also gave us (the audience) a bunch of astonishingly talented actors, who now rule the theatre and OTT world. Geetanjali Kulkarni, Gagan Dev Riar, Mansi Multani, Neha Saraf, and Sagar Deshmukh, are some of the many names.
Among its many accolades is Piya Behrupiya’s understated economic success which has helped cross-fund The Company Theatre’s productions for years. In an underfunded industry, it set an example for not just being viable, but profitable.
There’s also a culture of repeat viewing, one that is more common in films. Piya Behrupiya propagated it; at nearly every show, you’d see audience members compare notes about how many times and where they’d watched the play before.
And yet, these are hardly the things you’ll come out remembering from a play that has touched so many hearts. At the end of the day, Piya Behrupiya is every bit of joy the cast seems to be having on stage - the camaraderie and infectious energy they bring.
The play may have done more than it set out to achieve and carved a space for contemporary theatre in the larger Indian entertainment industry. For many, including the newbies I drag along to shows, before Piya Behrupiya, the theatre was hardly an option for an evening out. For this, and for a life in theatre writing, Piya Behrupiya has my immense gratitude. It’s also why it has become nearly impossible to look at Piya Behrupiya objectively and without nostalgia-tinted glasses. Beyond the work of art that it is, Piya Behrupiya’s place in our cultural zeitgeist will forever remain.
You can catch Piya Behrupiya on its farewell tour until the end of the month. Tickets are available on www.bookmyshow.com. A recorded version of the play is also available on Zee Theatre.
Fact file
- Piya Behrupiya had a second, Delhi-based cast brought together in 2016. It included Anamika Tiwari, Titas Dutta, Sudheer Rikhari, Girish Sharma, Pooka Gupta, Dhwani Vij, Nehpal Gautam, Raunak Khan, and Bhaskar Baruah.
- By the time the farewell run ends, Piya Behrupiya will have done 272 shows.
- Piya Behrupiya has performed in a total of 14 countries.
- It has gone to places like Kannur in Kerala and Srinagar for shows. It has had the greatest number of shows in Mumbai.
- The most remote place it has performed in is Wuzhen, China.
- Atul Kumar auditioned more than 80 artists for a cast of nine from traditional performers of nautanki in Mathura and Lucknow, settling ultimately for a Mumbai cast that could perform in the style.
- The first adaptation was done by filmmaker Rajat Kapoor only to be discarded for Amitosh Nagpal’s adaptation done in four days.
- The play has had children as part of the cast over the years. It was Atul Kumar and Sheeba Chaddha’s daughter Noor to begin with. Now, Amitosh Nagpal and Neha Saraf’s son Anay Nagpal is part of the tour. Kumar and Rachel D’Souza’s daughter Isa Baani has also been part of Piya Behrupiya.
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