JOIN USRanga Shankara is 15 this year
Ranga Shankara, one of India’s most vibrant theatre venues, completes 15 years in October.
Located in JP Nagar in south Bengaluru, it is named after Shankar Nag, who acted, directed and produced plays, films and TV serials.
Setting up and running the theatre hasn’t been easy, Arundhati Nag told an audience at Bengaluru International Centre, Domlur, where she was in conversation with another theatre stalwart, Ratna Pathak.
On programming
Arundhati built Ranga Shankara over many years, and it certainly wasn’t easy.
“It didn’t happen in a day. There was fundraising. I stopped acting to raise funds. I lost Shankar (in 1990) and this became my reason to live,” she said.
Indian theatre has always been an amalgam of music, dance and theatre. Because of the British influence, the spoken word became important. The space aims to achieve an ‘osmosis’ of music, dance and theatre, the actor said.
Usually, at Ranga Shankara, tickets aren’t priced at more than Rs 200 (for in-city troupes) and Rs 300 (for out-station troupes), but the price for Ratna and Naseeruddin Shah’s ‘The Father’, staged on Tuesday, was Rs 750. Arundhati expressed concern over the pricing.
“The economics is like that. I don’t know why theatre should be apologetic about payment for plays,” said Ratna, observing how people were willing to pay a lot of money to watch movies.
On being married to stars
Ratna’s take: “If you are working towards the same thing, it minimises some issues. While performing, people look at Naseeruddin. You learnt to get by and make adjustments.”
Arundhati said her late husband had a stage presence that made him popular. “Shankar isn’t as good an actor as Naseeruddin, but he had a charm that made him a hit. He was a theatre buff, and it was his escape to become someone else. He might have become a much better director if he’d got to live longer,” she said.
She recalled how she would give him acting suggestions and they were equals in that sense.
“I was Arundhati Rao till he died. People connect to Shankar through me; I am the one he left behind. So, I didn’t fight when people called me Arundhati Nag,” she says.
During the Q&A session, a member of the audience complained the National School of Drama was denying admission to people over 60. “We can’t influence the college or government (to start) a course for seniors. Maybe Ranga Shankara should give it a thought,” Arundhati said.
The idea received loud applause from the audience.