Hiccups, headaches and a blockbuster on hand

Today let me talk on some hiccups I faced in my theatre journey. After  four successful plays at the box office, my co-producer Hosi Vasunia decided that we’d had enough of comedies and farces.The elitist bug hit him and he decided to venture into staging some classics, much  against my better judgment. First we staged a play called All the King’s Men directed by theatre guru  Alyque Padamsee followed by St Joan directed by Vijay Crishna .Both plays bombed at the box office and all the moolah we had made from our earlier hits was wiped out.This also ended our fruitful partenership.

1983 and I was once again on my own and desperately looking out for a play. At that time Sam Kerawala was the manager at Patkar Hall, one of the popular theatre venues of those days, where we had performed several of our hit plays. Sam had been associated with Adi Marzban and we were good friends. He had just returned from London and he talked about a play he had seen there. It was a British farce called Run For Your Wife penned by one of Britain’s most successful writers of comedy plays -- Ray Cooney.The story is about a taxi driver who gets away with having two wives in different areas of London because of his irregular working schedule. Complications pile on complications as the cab driver tries to keep his double life from exploding. A London critic wrote "Run For Your Wife should run for life”.

I knew in my bones that this would be a hit and invited Sam Kerawala to direct.We had a handpicked cast of Bombay’s best talent -- Homi Daruwala, my wife Ruby, Farid Currim, Bomi Kapadia, Sohrab Ardeshir -- amongst others.The play was running to full houses  when a small bomb exploded. I was hit by a legal notice from Mulla & Mulla solicitors on behalf of the writer Ray Cooney for staging his work without performance rights. Until that time none of the theatre producers had thought of applying for such rights and the franchises in UK and USA had not bothered. My production house seemed the first test case.We had a super hit play on our hands and I was determined to resolve the crisis.Under Mulla & Mulla's advice I flew to London to meet with the writer.

My first-ever trip outside our country. I was both excited and worried.With limited financial resources I stayed at YMCA hostel. It was winter and bitter cold. Not knowing how to handle the multiple taps in the shower I fiddled around, pressed the wrong  one and was flooded with ice cold water. Just a few days in London, yet it grows on you."Oh! To Be In London!" as they say.

I fixed up a meeting with Ray Cooney’s right hand man Hymie Udwin. He was very sympathetic when I explained to him that unlike UK and USA, English theatre in India was at a nascent stage and we were making efforts to build audiences all the time. At the same time one appreciated his point that playwrights depend for their living on royalties from performances. He offered me the play with a token per show fee.

I returned home relieved and satisfied. Run For Your Wife resumed its run and became the first English farce to cross 100 shows. The critic’s comment “It should run for life” seems true since even to this day I see the play being advertised under different theatre banners all over India. Later I adapted the play in Gujarati under the title Double Savaari which again was a big hit.

Hymie became a good friend and would send me Ray Cooney’s new scripts even before they were printed and available for amateur rights.We staged the playwright's It Runs in the Family with equal success.

Unfortunately Hymie is no more, yet lives on for me since I intend to stage one of the plays he had sent me in the near future.

The author is a well-known stage personality