[Reader-list] Urban Sabha Drama- July

[pritham k chakravarthy]

July- Urban Sabha Drama

S. Ve Shekar: Began his group Natakapriya, in 1973, on the decks of S. S. 
Chidambaram. The group has performed over 5000 shows in these three decades 
and has a large following in USA, Canada, Europe and Australia. Shekar 
himself is a popular film and television star and the elected MLA, from 
AIADMK.

In conversation with S. Ve. Shekar:

P- Tell me about the release of your scripts as books.
S- All my scripts are available as books, all my 33 plays. I have brought 
out 33,000 books simultaneously. It has entered The Limca Book of Records. I 
brought them out two years back. Earlier Cho’s plays were available. 
But even they were available only after he left the stage. Only my plays are 
available while they are still being performed.
P- At the printing stage do you involve an editor?
S- The script is the performance script.
P- How does the royalty get shared between you and the playwright?
S- I am the playwright.
P- of all the 33 scripts?
S- Yes. I buy them outright from the playwright.
P- Meaning you commission a playwright to do a play of you?
S- Yes. The idea of all plays come from me. The playwright merely strings it 
together with scenes. So I own the plays. I did have a problem with one of 
my playwrights like Gopu-Babu, who claimed they should be given rights. So I 
changed my playwright.
P- Tell me how you began to perform.
S- We were traveling to Malaysia on S.S. Chidambaram, with Gopi Theatres of 
V. Gopalakrishnan. I was doing stage management and small part in it. While 
we coming back, there was a difference in how some people were treated. Now 
in my troupe, if all the members are going by second class then I will also 
go with them. There is no star treatment here. But in Gopi’s group 
there was. Actually I started my group in protest to that.
P- How many members are there in your group now?
S- Around 38-40 members.
P- Are they all full timers?
S- Almost all of them. I do not believe in this full-timer, part-timer 
categories. They are being paid. That makes them full timers. Other than the 
drama hours, what they do is not my business. How do you define a hobby? If 
you do something and don’t get money for it, then it is a hobby. But 
once you are paid, however small the amount, you are a professional. Today 
my actors are professionals.
P- When I used to do Sabha Drama when I was school, only women artistes were 
paid…
S- That’s what they used to say. Today anyone in drama wants to be 
paid. They are all professionals. Only they will not accept that. Anyone who 
depends on drama for their income should call themselves professionals and 
not pretend they are doing for the ‘love-of-art’. See, even in 
cinema, the small part actors will never demand their payment directly. It 
is always, ‘sir, have pay my child’s school fees’, or 
‘I have to take my mother to the hospital’. Only the big stars 
can ask for payment on demand. Ever since television became big, all drama 
artists get good money and so they expect it in theatre also. There is 
nothing wrong in that.
P- So today how does the economics operate for a show in sabha drama today?
S- An average group should see that one show’s cost does not exceed 
3000/. That is the amount a sabha will pay for a show. This is for a small 
group. My charges are higher, but I have been in this field for 30 years and 
I can assure gate collection also. Next to me is Crazy Mohan.
P- Crazy Thieves in Pallavakkam was your first production?
S- No. Avan Oru Thanimaram was my first in 1974. Crazy Thieves was my third. 
I introduced Crazy Mohan. First I contacted Mouli, who was writing for UAA 
then to write my first play. He also directed the play. Our star then 
Nagesh, Prabhu and Vadyaar Raman. That was serious script. It had over 70 
shows in the city, because Nagesh will not perform outside Chennai. But my 
own group members could not come to limelight because of so many stars.
P- How did you get your performances then?
S- I am the PRO for my group till this date. My contacts were very good even 
then, and we had so many stars. So getting a show was very easy. It was only 
dependant on Nagesh’s dates.
P- You started with a bang and are still continuing strong in this field. 
Why is that so many who began with you just disappeared from drama?
S- Almost all of us began our drama troupes only as a gateway of getting 
into cinema. Only they are established there, then they will not come back 
to drama. That is like asking a student who has passed LKG to STD 1 to go 
back to kindergarten. But passion was stronger. Even when I was busy in 
cinema, I tried to keep my theatre alive. When I was too busy, I first 
released my plays as audio cassettes, then as video. Now they are available 
as books. But I am still performing them on stage and audiences come. After 
me, only Crazy Mohan has this. Even when became so popular, you will never 
find a mimicry artist trying to imitate me. That would be very difficult, as 
I am one of the most natural performers. I don’t add any extra 
elements to my acting.
P- Your shows are sought by for many charitable causes? Do you charge 
differently then?
S- I have been doing shows for causes right from the beginning, because I 
believe in those causes. They come to me more often because I can assure 
gate collection. Other groups cannot. Definitely I will charge. My own fee 
may be a little lesser, but my group members must be paid in full.
P- So what is your fee in those circumstances?
S- Sorry, I cannot discuss that.
P- Do you have any specific disciplining rules for your group members?
S- Of course yes. If they are in my group, they cannot act in any other 
group. There should be exclusiveness for my group. That will be lost if they 
feature in other kinds of plays. Also, they have to be teetotalers, 
non-smokers. One of the actors, when we were performing in Bangalore, got 
drunk at four in the evening and challenged me. The show was at seven. I 
simply threw him out of my group, on the spot, chopped of his character and 
ran the show. That is the talent of running a group. Discipline is more 
important, than the person. It may look harsh to you, but important to me. 
That is why my group has survived.

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