Stop doing old plays, write from life: Makarand Deshpande

Expressing his disappointment in new actors doing theatre "as per curriculum", veteran director and actor Makarand Deshpande here said that people need to "write new plays based on life experiences".
"Theatre institutes all over the country are following curriculums, people should create new plays from their life's experiences. For how long will we keep doing old plays?
"People are still doing Shakespeare, Ghashiram Kotwal, Romeo-Juliet and Waiting for Godot, all these are good plays. But are they even relevant today? I want people to write, else we'll become as old as the plays," Deshpande told PTI.
The playwright-director, who has come to Delhi after a long span of 12 years for his play "Sir Sir Sarla", criticised theatre institutes like National School of Drama for "sticking to curriculum" and "not going on tour to find new plays" as they used to do earlier.

"I came to NSD's Rang Mahotsav in 1995 when Ram Gopal Bajaj was the head. After him, it has changed. Now they select plays based on a DVD, don't they have time to take a tour around the country and choose new plays?
"New kids are coming to NSD and they are talented, but what will become of them by sticking to curriculum? It has become more of a formality to finish the course, pass a batch and do a theatre festival every year," the actor said.

Deshpande, who has written over 40 plays, said theatre was his first love and remains so even today.

Over his disappearance from commercial cinema, he said, "I never aspired to become a star. And I used to get bored on filmsets, so I decided to do more theatre."
Deshpande said his plays are "part fiction and part real life, my own life".
"'Maa in Transit' is about a son losing his mother and coming to terms with the fact. It's part reality, part fiction and that's why people connect to it, they understand this," Deshpande said.
The theatre artiste, who is travelling across the country as part of Zee Theatre Tour, plans to stage a festival of his own plays sometime in July and also hopes to make it a travelling theatre festival.

The current tour, which started in January this year with a play titled 'Internal Affairs' at Sri Ram Centre here, will stage 12 plays in 15 Indian cities.
The team will showcase 'Sir Sir Sarla', which is written and directed by Deshpande, at Kamani Auditorium tomorrow.