Additional shows for Mughal-E-Azam, The Play

The Broadway-style musical play adaption of K Asif's film Mughal- E- Azam which premiered at the NCPA (National Centre For Performing Arts) on October 21 seems to have become an instant hit with one and all. The play directed by Feroz Abbas Khan has opened to near unanimous acclaim and it is quite clear now that the makers have a winner on their hands. So much so that the public demand for the play prompted the makers to have additional shows of the musical extravaganza on Monday and Tuesday considering the fact that all the shows are going housefull and tickets are selling like hot cakes.

The play will have an extra show on Monday, October 31 at 4 pm and on Tuesday, November 1. It will be performed at the NCPA – Mumbai, till first week of November for a limited engagement of two weeks.

Neetu all set for a date with Devdas on stage

Actress Neetu N Chandra is looking forward to bringing Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Devdas to stage for the international audiences. Not a novice in theatre (her play Umrao Jaan has already been staged more than 40 times across India), Neetu is currently working on the project. She will be producing the theatre version of the famous piece of literary work.

According to a source, "Neetu is very fond of Devdas and is keen on producing a play based on the famous novel. Interestingly, the play has been targeted only for international market and will be staged outside India, including in the USA. Apparently, Neetu’s team is currently looking for a male lead.” Devdas, always a hit with directors cutting across mediums, has been captured on screen on innumerable occasions.

Mughal-E-Azam now on stage

An epic called Mughal-E-Azam starring Prithviraj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Madhubala, will soon be captured in the form of a Broadway style Musical play to be directed by acclaimed filmmaker Feroz Abbas Khan. The director of Gandhi, My Father and plays like Tumhari Amrita, Salesman Ramlal and Mahatma VS Gandhi, will pay a tribute to the original film through the play.

The play will be staged at the NCPA (National Centre For Performing Arts), from play from October 21 to the first week of November for a limited engagement of two weeks followed by the staging in end November for another two weeks into December at Siri Fort Auditorium in New Delhi. It will also feature eight songs from the film to be used as part of the narrative!

Says Khan, “Mughal-E-Azam is apt because even the film was inspired by a play, Anarkali, which the director K Asif saw and borrowed passages of dialogue from. It's a dramatic father-son story with the nation at stake. In its writing skills and mounting, it was close to perfection with great dialogues and emotional story-telling, complemented by eye-catching visuals and a terrific score." The play will be co-produced by Shapoorji Palanji, the 150-year old business conglomerate that had funded K. Asif’s Mughal-E-Azam with a budget of three-million- dollars in 1960, making it the most expensive film made at the time.

Apart from Khan, other names attached to this ambitious project are that of costume designer Manish Malhotra, award-winning lighting designer David Lander, Emmy award nominee projection designer John Narun, production designer Neil Patel and choreographer Mayuri Upadhya.