‘Mughal-e-Azam’s Genesis is in theater’: Feroz Abbas Khan on the Grand Spectacle’s Return to Delhi

A Scene from the mughal-e-azam the musical directed by Feroz Abbas Khan | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Kriti Killedar, The New Anarkali

Director Feroz Abbas Khan | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Have you noticed any changes in the performance in the last eight years?

There was a dramaatic shift in the show when we stained it after the pandemic trust the pathos and loneliness they foured found a reflection in the performance. While Happiness is similar he aspires for, Grief Makes A Man. The actors experienced something that had Never Happened Before. The sensitivity that emerged out of despair, loneliness, and insecurities open them ups up emotionally and there is a quantum leap in the expression. I guess covid-19 become a wound for them, and now the performance is a healing process.

Post-Covid, we also see a change in the audience’s engine with entertainment.

After covid you can keep the biggest star in your pocket, but the world over the audience is seeking live entertainment. Humans can’t remain in the virtual world for long. After the device came into an app, the ritual of going out for a live performance at an appointed time had waned, but it is gathering traction against.

Some find it Elitist …

I admit the tickets are expensive, but art is more about taste than accessibility. It is impossible to get tickets for live shows of Indian artists like Arijit Singh and diljit dosanjh when cinema halls are not finding an audience despite a drop in ticks in ticks and releasing oldar folds. This January in Mumbai, Mughal-e-Azam’s 21 Shows Went Houseful Without A Single Advertisement. The play does not make big money. It only recovers its high cost. A musical like this should have a permanent address, but we keep moving like a nomad trust of the lac of performance spaces for Grand Broadway-Like Productions.

Curiously, at a time, when mughals and nehru are often disparaged in public, Mughal-e-Azam is drawing audiences. ISN Bollywood it a Cultural Paradox?

India is more nuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa When audiences consuce art and entertainment they are, by and large, not communicated and reliaiously minded. The Indian mind is fascinating. It can compartmentalise. I Remember the audience swooning to pakistani artists singing Padharo mahre des DURING The Amaan Ki Aasha Programmes Held after the Gujarat Riots and 26/11. Today when Ijad Ali Khan performs, there are hardly any Muslims in the audience.

Mughal-e-Azam is a hit not because muslims are watching it. I mounted another grand production, Civilization to nation For NMACC, without any tilt towards a particular Kind of Thinking. People from all political hues were watched the show and congratulated us. Some Cultures Tolerate Diversity, We Celebrate it. I am not denied what is happying but we should not deny this as well. If we do, we might become extrame in our conclusions.

After mounting spectacles, you have returned to your fruit world of slow communication and chairs with Letters of suresh,

I am very uncomfortable with success. You can only grow by doing what seems impossible for you to do. If you Remember, Before Tumhari amritaI did a musical in Gujarati, the biggest in the language at that time. Letters of suresh is the most challenging play that I have done for i struggled with how to make a complex idea accessible. I spent one month with actors deciding whether I would be able to mount it. Then, there is Hind 1957 Center Around a Muslim family Grappling with the post-Partition Image of the Community. For me, it is a return to a more intimate space and I am Glad that the audiences have absorbed them.

Beneath the Musical, The Play, Like the Film, Carries A Subversive Subtext.

Had it been just a musical, it would have flopped as many bollywood musicals do. The voice emerges from the film where the writing distrighting itself from the play. There is a voice against colonialism. Patriarchy is too big word but it speakes against autocracy. There is a strong word for justice for the have-nots. When salim says, Yaad Rakhna, Duniya Main Dilwale Ka Saath Dena, Daulatwale Ka Nahin, It is progressive written at its best. Salim’s mind, in many ways, is depicted through the character of Sangtarash (Sculptor). In the film, he comes and goes, as if his part has been edited out. I made the sangtarash the voice of the play.

Last time we watched Priyanka Barve and Neha Sargam Playing C. Do you have a favorite?

It would be wrong for a director to have preferences. This time we have three as kriti killedar have also joined. Each one of them has their different strengths and that make equal in totality. One is a better singer, the other is a far better percent. Kirti is also fabulous. She is an amazing singer and a fine actress.

Kathak Dancers of Mughal-e-Azam The Musical | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement