Theatre live on screen
CinePlay brings you the magic of theatre but on a screen
By : prerana kapur
Update: 2014-09-28 23:29 GMT
Theatre and cinema are two genres of creative expression, with a single similarity both serve an audience. While theatre focuses on ‘serious drama’ with infused realism, cinema battles with some distortion of reality. Can we blend the two? CinePlay, the brainchild of Subodh Maskara, does just that. Nandita Das and Maskara were closely associated with theatre and co-founded CinePlay.
The idea is to film a theatrical performance and reach out to wider audiences. “The concept is closer to theatre, except we are just watching it on screen,” says Maskara. CinePlay is set to launch in Hyderabad with its first screening of Siddharth Kumar’s The Job which is to be held on Tuesday, September 30 at Lamakaan. Maskara is enthusiastic about the maiden take-off in the City of Nizams.
What spurred this out-of-the-box concept? Due to infrastructure issues, date clashes and other unavoidable circumstances, they couldn’t perform at many venues. Hence, the concept evolved of taking the play to audiences despite of the absence of the performers. The husband-wife duo have converted acclaimed plays like Dance Like a Man and Aadhe Adhure into CinePlays.
“We are trying to rope in two large multiplex chains and planning commercial releases of CinePlays all over India,” says Maskara. Seasoned theatre artistes “were divided in the beginning, but now they are welcoming the concept,” he adds.