The firebrand actress staged her latest play Namaste here. She chatted with Karan Bhardwaj about adding her own elements to foreign productions and making them work in the Indian context
Ila Arun is enjoying her affair with Indra dev, the God of rain. Wherever she goes and performs, rain follows her. To our surprise, weather was quite clear when we reached ICCR’s Azad Bhavan an hour before her play Namaste. As we began chatting, it started pouring dramatically and an amused actor laughed,“I knew this would happen. I am bringing rains everywhere. This is my fifth play welcomed by Indra Deva. When I performed the same play last month in Indore, the city witnessed a heavy downpour,” she told us minutes before taking over the stage. Despite the odd weather, the stellar artist got a packed audience.
The guest list included names like Shatrugan Sinha, Dr Karan Singh, Amjad Ali Khan, Pt Birju Maharaj and other dignitaries.
“I perform no matter what it takes. It’s been like my journey. I have done what I set out to. Even 31 years ago, when I moved to Mumbai, I knew I had to be different from the commercial theatre or Bollywood. I continue to do so,” said the multi-faceted actor. Namaste celebrates 30 years of her production group Surnai. “I started my group in 1982. I was lucky to get like-minded people who would do serious theatre and had no commercial plans. Would you believe, director of Namaste, KK Raina, has been with me for three decadesIJ We do theatre to enrich ourselves,” she said.
Arun has done many plays over the years but she always twists them according to Indian sensibilities. “I think I have little sense of rural and urban India, so I know what clicks for them. I always take liberty to add my thoughts to the play,” she quipped.
Namaste is an adaptation of Tom Dudzick’s Play Greetings. The actor apparently dedicated Delhi’s performance to Suresh Goel, the outgoing director of ICCR.
Namaste is a story of a young boy, Mohan, living in America who comes to meet his parents in India along with his live-in girlfriend Porky, whom he has renamed Krishna, to get his parent’s nod. “The play opens in an aircraft, where Mohan is giving last lessons of Hindi and Indian culture to his girlfriend, hoping that this will help in getting his parent’s acceptance. He wants to present an Indian girl brought up with American values. It is Janamashtmi, and his parents are celebrating the festival. But Mohan’s plan misfires when his girlfriend finds it difficult to keep up with her fake identity.
The director shared, “In the end, both parents and children would reassess their thoughts and ideas. We are not passing any judgement, we just want people to think if they too are blindly following the rituals or age-old tradition in this age.”
Arun performed Namaste recently in Mumbai and received accolades from Amitabh Bachchan. He was all praises for the actress on his blog. “It was like a dream come true. Amitabh ji understands theatre and he is a complete artist. It was such a big honour when he came backstage and appreciated our efforts,” she said.
On big screen, she will be seen next in Shaadi Ke Side Effects. She has also completed her album comprising 10 tracks but is unable to release it. “Music industry is going through a bad phase. I still hope to release the album by September,” she said.