World Theatre Day| Manav Kaul: If you're in theatre to earn money, you are missing the point

Actor Manav Kaul has been a part of the Indian theatre scene for the past 30 years, living various roles on and off the stage. He has also written and directed many plays like Ilhaam, Park, Chuhal. Tumhare Baare Mein and Shakkar Ke Paanch Daane. On World Theatre Day, he proudly says, “I am theatre because I am living that life, it’s a part of me.”

Kaul agrees that he gets a sense of freedom in theatre which isn’t there in films or OTT. “As a society, we do not give much importance to any art form and always treat it as a hobby. When you do it professionally, nobody gives a shit and there is very less money. Thus, the freedom in theatre is because nobody takes us seriously.”

Theatre as a medium is often said to be not financially fruitful. Mention it to the 47-year-old and he says, “We have always known that in theatre, there is no money. The moment you are successful and making money, you have to question what kind of theatre you are doing. If you are here to earn money, you are missing the point of theatre. You better do serials, films or OTT. I feel that a commercially successful play is actually missing the point of doing theatre in India.”

The thespian is quite happy with the way theatre audience is growing in India. He shares, “When OTT revolution happened, people thought who would now come to theatre. But on the contrary, the audience for us has increased because of these Instagram reels as people want to see real art.” Kaul insists that what sets Indian theatre audience apart is their demographic. “India is very lucky that we have a young audience which is very rare as compared to outside of the country. I feel our future is very bright and beautiful as young people are hungry to see something real and talk about it.”

As an extension of theatre, the concept of teleplays recently started gaining momentum in India. However, Kaul doesn’t yet subscribe to it. “I am old school, also, in India we don’t do teleplays like the West. They do a run of the show for six months, and just shoot one of those shows. In India, we perform to shoot a play with no audience. And theatre dies when there is no audience. So, I am not that comfortable with the idea of shooting a play in India,” he says.

Comparing today’s scene with his theatre days from 1998-2005, Kaul shares, “We hardly had any places to perform then. There was just NCPA and Prithvi. People were always looking out for spaces to build an audience. Now, just Aram Nagar has so many venues. The new generation of theatre is very lucky. I am very optimistic because as long as you have a younger audience, your future is secure.”