Bollywood actors have stage fright!

Theatre bigwigs say the stage does not need  Bollywood actors to  survive; most of them feel the stars lack  discipline that’s needed of a theatre actor, reports Sujata Chakrabarti

 Far away in New York, Katie Holmes is winning hearts with her Broadway debut in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, following in the footsteps of Julia Roberts and Al Pacino who have dominated the stage and screen with equal élan.

However, in India theatre directors are not too keen on having movie stars on stage. They feel Bollywood stars are ‘too indisciplined’ to fit into a stage actor’s shoes.

Veteran theatre director, Alyque Padamsee rubbishes the thought that the presence of Bollywood actors can provide an impetus to an art form that commands only a niche audience.

He says, “The bar of good actors who can act well in both cinema and the stage has been set by stalwarts like Anupam Kher, Farooq Sheikh, Naseeruddin Shah and their likes. However, when film actors are just shoved into a play to try and get a hit, it brings a bad name to everyone associated with theatre.”

He adds, “Blame it on the lack of discipline. Stage acting requires discipline that most Bollywood actors don’t have.”

Dolly Thakore is quite vociferous in expressing her annoyance at film actors often being approached to lend the glam element on stage. She says, “Bollywood actors have no time, no concentration. They don’t realise it is different to learn sentences for one scene and those for an entire play.”

Another grave concern voiced by theatre directors is the attitude that film stars have towards acting on stage. Theatre actor and director Hidayat Sami says, “I have befriended several actors while doing acting workshops with Satyadev Dubey.

Every time I have approached them for doing stage productions, they have brazenly asked me  ‘What do I get out of it?’ I am at a loss for words. They just don’t realise that they ought to do this for themselves.”

Hidayat admits that he has himself been party to certain embarrassing situations arising when Bollywood stars, despite wanting to participate in stage productions, refuse to shed off that glamour mantle that has become synonymous with them.

He recalls the 100th show of Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal’s The Vagina Monologue that had Mallika Sherawat as part of the show and the tantrums she threw around. Hidayat says, “Her diva-like attitude was unmistakable. She never mixed with the people and rarely spoke. I guess the only reason she was there was perhaps because her publicist would have said - It’s good for your image.”

Nowadays, as more and more plays are highlighting a lot of social issues, theatre actor Avantika Akerkar is amused that several leading ladies of Bollywood are unwilling to do play a part in such plays.

She had said in a recent interview, “In the past our theatre group Poor-Box Productions has approached several Bollywood A-list actors. Every time they have an excuse like ‘Oh, what will my mom think?’ Such excuses coming from people who don’t mind revealing on-screen, shows the kind of hypocrisy that exists in the industry.”

Dolly Thakore feels that in the few instances when leading Bollywood actors have acted on stage, they’ve been awful. She says, “Some directors take the risk and include Bollywood actors in the cast.” Citing an example she says, “Ramesh Talwar had included Bollywood bigwigs like Zeenat Aman and Jaya Bachchan in his stage plays in the past. Zeenat just did not live up to the expectation. In fact, she was terrible.” Ahem!
c_sujata@dnaindia.net