'Mughal-e-Azam' musical to premiere in Delhi on September 8

A Broadway style musical based on veteran actor Dilip Kumar's "Mughal-e-Azam" will have its Delhi premiere on September 8.

Directed by Feroz Abbas Khan and with grand costumes by Bollywood's favourite designer Manish Malhotra, "Mughal-e-Azam" will be open to all from September 9 to 17.

Both Feroz Abbas Khan and Manish Malhotra were present at a press conference here on Thursday with choreographer Mayuri Upadhya, producers Shapoorji Pallonji and officials of National Centre for the Performing Arts.

After it became a hit with the audiences in Mumbai last year, the musical will be staged at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium here.

The musical was to be showcased in Delhi last November, but the director says the lack of a big venue caused the delay.

"We tried to scout venues to put up this production and we realised that Delhi doesn't have such a big venue which can host the production at this scale. After a lot of churning and checking, we found this place which, of course, has an auditorium style seating," Khan, who has a number of hit plays to his credit, told IANS.

"But this is also very challenging because we are putting up an entire infrastructure. When you see what we are doing there, it will be quite mind-boggling," he added.

The musical, which seems to be spectacular through some videos showcased here, will be staged on a larger scale in Delhi with a 175-member crew. There will be large number of projections with high-tech infrastructure.

More than 550 costumes have been designed by Malhotra, who said fabrics and textures were chosen with a sharp eye on the fact that the artistes have to keep changing in a small frame of time.

The artistes performing will be dancing, singing and acting at the same time, just like a Broadway show.

--IANS

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