It's showtime for Ambal!

A couple of years ago, October 2012 to be precise, a group of like-minded people got together to start Ambal Productions, a YouTube channel featuring video blogs on Dogra culture, and the language Dogri, one of the main Pahadi dialects. In May this year, they put out their first theatre production, Toba Tek Singh, a solo performance by actor Mohit Sharma, who is also a member of their core team. More recently, they staged an adaptation of An Unposted Love Letter from Doris Lessing's short story by the same name. We caught up with Mohit, to find out more about their projects:

What was the thought behind starting Ambal Productions? Tell us a little about the web episodes.

We're a group of like-minded individuals from diverse fields and some of us happen to be Dogras. We started the YouTube channel in order to connect with other Dogras across the world. We do a lot of personality interviews, folk songs and in a way, it's a way of documenting our culture and language.

How did you decide to venture into theatre?

We got into theatre this year with Sadat Hasan Manto's Toba Tek Singh in Urdu and Hindi and more recently, we staged An Unposted Love Letter in English. Theatre is just an organic extension of all that we like doing. Also, I wanted to revisit theatre after 12 years. Toba Tek Singh is a solo play and I enact 19 characters. We have done around 34 shows of the play and it's still running. Our second play is about an artiste's struggle to better his craft.

What has been the response to An Unposted Love Letter?

When we were rehearsing for the play, we were mentally ready that it may not have mass appeal or attract audience in big numbers but we have been proved wrong. The fourth show of the play was housefull and we have received a really good response, specially from the female audience. We're again staging the play at The Hive on September 19 and 20.

Are there any new shows you are preparing for?

There's an epic Hindi novel called Raag Darbari written by Srilal Shukla which is a satire on the socio political system of our country. Unfortunately, most of it is still relevant today and we have adapted an excerpt from it to perform a play titled 'Mera Bharat Mahaan?' It will open roughly in the second or third week of October. Then there is a kind of sketch comedy where two actors will pretend to be wannabe stand-up comedians. The third is a performance poetry in two languages. We also hope to stage Toba Tek Singh in Kashmir next year, so we're working towards that.