Witness Hyderabad’s first Ramleela

Have you ever watched a play that lasted more than 3 hours? Difficult right? But you can watch it if it has a gripping content and connectivity until the end. For the first time ever in the city, Rangeen Sapney Theatre Productions is all set to stage a play ‘Ramleela’ directed by Surender Sahil Verma with more than three-hour duration on May 4 to 6 at Phoenix Arena from 7pm onwards.

What sets this play apart from other adaptations of Ramleela, is that it is a story that has been put up across various mediums several time, this time the play is musical in nature with live music instead of backing tracks.

 This adaptation of Ramleela has condensed the entire epic (Radheyshyam Ramayana which is around 45 hours long and spread over 15 days) into a three-hour long play while maintaining the charm and meaning which according to the director, is itself a great achievement. 

Ramleela also has another unique feature under its belt which is that the cast of the play, mainly composed of new actors. On working with a cast of 40+ actors and musicians most of them new, director Verma says, “New artists are easy to manage and bring raw energy. Of course, they need more training and technical skills, but it is compensated by their strong desire and passion to leave a mark. 

It is a big challenge to keep new actors in discipline since they are not familiar with the work culture of theatre. So, the first few days were difficult but I’m glad the team was really focussed, and they learned theatre etiquette in a very short time,” 

The play, which went through a seven-month long editing process apart from highlighting the major theme of good over evil, also tries to deal with themes such as strength of family relations, the result of strong will power and impact of arrogance on one’s existence.

 This play seems like a strong attempt at bringing something new to Indian theatre while staying grounded in a story that has been passed down for generations and trying to revitalise it and hopefully, it will achieve what it tries to.

What: Ramleela
Where: Phoenix Arena
Time:  From May 4 to 6 at 7pm. 

By Sre Ratha