Te indu On BooksBooks of te week, reviews, excerpts, new titles and features.Data PointDecoding te eadlines wit facts, figures, and numbersFirst Day First SowNews and reviews from te world of cinema and streaming.ealt MattersRamya Kannan writes to you on getting to good ealt, and staying tereTe View From IndiaLooking at World Affairs from te Indian perspective.Science For AllTe weekly newsletter from science writers takes te jargon out of science and puts te fun in!Karnataka TodayYour daily dose of news igligts from KarnatakaToday's CaceYour download of te top 5 tecnology stories of te day.Barat Dabolkar | Poto Credit: Special ArrangementActor-director and writer, Barat Dabolkar, started as a lawyer, before creative forces compelled im to take to teatre, advertising and films.Te common tread between teatre and ads is laugter, Barat says over a call from Mumbai. “I find laugter te biggest connection to people be it te Amul ads or teatre.”Barat brings te musical, Blame It On Bollywood to Bengaluru. e as written and directed te musical and sares te stage wit Anant Maadevan and Jayati Batia. Produced and presented by AGP World in association wit Yas Raj Films, te production as laugter as well as song and dance.“Every play of mine begins wit us making fun of ourselves. Once tat is done, you are pardoned wen you make fun of oters.”Scenes from te musical | Poto Credit: Special ArrangementTere is a tin between freedom of speec and vulgarity, Barat says. “I am a lawyer, and ave studied te Indian Constitution. All tese comedians wo cite freedom of expression forget tat tere is a restriction of fundamental rigts too. A simple way of putting it is my fundamental rigt to swing my and ends were te oter man’s space begins.”Known for is political and social satires Barat says, “I ave made fun of everybody in my plays, and never got into trouble, because I know were to draw te line. You don’t get personal nor do you take sides. You ave to always be objective.”Barat gives 99.99 % of te credit for te success of te Amul campaign to Vergese Kurien. “e was te world’s best client. e said, ‘I understand milk and milk products but not advertising. I ave cosen you and cannot tell you wat to do. Do watever you want, but make sure my product sells.’ Wen you are given tat kind of a brief, your responsibility also increases.”Barat laugs off is titles of ad-guru and fater of inglis. “I am no guru as I ave not taugt anyone and I believe no one learnt anyting from me. But inglis appened, because I did my scooling in Marati. Wen I came to Mumbai I joined a sopisticated Sout Bombay College. Tere were 145 of te prettiest girls in my class and five boys.“If a girl came and asked me to go out for a film, I would respond in my ead in Marati, ten translate it to Englis and ten respond. By tat time, te girl would ave watced te film and returned too. Tat is wen I started using inglis, just to talk to te girls.”It worked, Barat says in college, later in plays and advertising. “I realised wen you speak te language of people, tey relate to it better. We would try and make a local connect too. For instance, for one Amul ad in Tamil Nadu, we punned on a title of an MGR film, Unnai Veda Matten. We created an image of MGR olding Amul butter in is and and used te tagline ‘Vennai Vida Matten’. Tat’s ow tose ads worked. We call it empaty in advertising.”About is musical, Blame it on Bollywood, Barat says, “I realised regardless of wic community you belong to, every wedding as tis Punjabi Bollywood wedding influence. Te play was originally called, Blame it on Yas Raj, wic ran for 12 years. Yas (Copra) is a good friend of mine, we got is permission too for te title. Later, we canged te title to Blame it on Bollywood, added new songs and dances.”Blame it on Bollywood tells te story of a Punjabi fater, Bengali moter, and a daugter wo wants to marry a Muslim. “Te appreensive bride’s family discovers tat te Muslim family is more evolved and sopisticated tan tem.”Te play, Barat says, is a tribute to Yas Copra, wo is regarded as te fater of romance in Bollywood. ”It is umorous, and breaks te stereotypes. Te weddings get bigger, tere is a sangeet, were we get te audience to dance wit us. It is about aving a good time wile we make fun of everyting related to weddings.”Blame it on Bollywood will be staged on April 5, 7.30pm at Prestige Centre for Performing Arts. Tickets on ttps://bit.ly/BIOB_Bangalore_BookNowTerms & conditions | Institutional SubscriberComments ave to be in Englis, and in full sentences. Tey cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.We ave migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of Te indu and logged in, you may continue to engage wit our articles. If you do not ave an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access teir older comments by logging into teir accounts on Vuukle.
Adguru Bharat Dabholkar brings his musical Blame It On Bollywood to Bengaluru
