Chat with the founding members of SETU Subrata Das and Jayanti Bandopadhyay

Transcribed by: Divya Mendiratta

Gauri :  Welcome to Foundations TV everyone. Our guests tonight are the founding members of SETU, which is a theater group. We have Subrata and we have Jayanti here today. We are very excited to hear about the upcoming show, Shah Jahan, which is going to be performed Sept 27^th through 29^th. This is an interview, and a way to get some information out there for everybody. Welcome to Foundations TV Jayanti. Tell us something about when SETU was founded, what the mission is and what is the idea behind creating something like that.

Jayanti:  First of all Gauri, thank you so much for doing this for SETU. SETU was founded by several theater enthusiasts back in 2003. And Subrata and I, of course are co – founders, we are still here. The full name of SETU is ‘Stage Ensemble Theater Unit’. However abbreviated name SETU also means, we are trying to bridge the cultural gaps between India, the Eastern part of the world and the Western part of the world. And this is why we only perform plays in English since that is part of our mission. The other mission is to give people who have never acted or never have been part of the production, whether it’s to do with lights or whatever, to give them an opportunity to be at SETU and get some training, so that’s very exciting. And there’s also a social message in every play. We do various Indian stories by famous play writes, or by people who can write scripts. I have also translated some. It gives a lot of chance for creativity, and there’s an educational message, hopefully, for some of our young players. You will see that when you will come and see our play.

Gauri:  Excellent. You know what I loved most about what you said, was that there’s a dual meaning to the word SETU. There’s the word itself in Hindi it means a bridge, which is so meaningful for what you doing and also the abbreviated form. Could you please share the expanded version of that abbreviation again.

Jayanti :  Sure. It’s Stage Ensemble Theater Unit. And it is an official Tax exempt organization. And we have performed before at Harvard University, we have performed at Endicott College and of course, at various venues around Boston Area. And now we are going to be performing at historical town of Belmont theater.

Gauri :  Very nice. One more question before you handover the mic to Subrata. You talked about being cross cultural, so do you have actors and actresses who are non-Indians as well, even though the theme is very Indian?

Jayanti:  Yes absolutely, we’ve had several American actors and actresses, and hopefully we’ll have more as we do future plays. We also have one of the youngest actors this time, his name is Yusuf, and he is doing Sipar. So the young people should be encouraged.

Gauri :  Very Nice. The beauty of Indian traditions and Indian culture is being spread through this group into various organizations and various cultures, as well as various generations. That’s really nice. I have actually been witness to such a fantastic performance of Mahabharat.I was completely mesmerized. That was something I cannot forget for the rest of my life. It was such a beautifully projected theatrical drama. And now it is Shah Jahan. I’m really personally looking forward to Shah Jahan. What I want to hear from you Subrata is how did you come up with this idea of doing Shah Jahan?

Subrata: Actually, I grew up in a village and I used to watch, what you call, yatra in villages. I saw several versions of Shah Jahan. From there, I got the ideas that when I probably do my plays in future,  I will probably pick up on that piece. And then this opportunity came up. Last year we did Mahabharat, as you said. And this year I picked up this play. The original one was written by famous play writer D.L. Roy and it was published in 1909, so it is a pretty old play. When I picked up the play as I said, the language itself was really very formal Bengali language, so I wasn’t quite sure I would be able to translate it.

Gauri : Its quite talent, very nice.

Subrata : But then I translated and started casting. It’s a large cast. We have about 35 people including dancers. We have 21 actors and 14 dancers.

Gauri :  Wow. That’s impressive. So have you added more to the script?

Subrata :  Yes, I did, actually its good thing that you asked. As an example, in the script there’s no role of Mumtaz. This script starts sometime in 1657. And Mumtaz was dead by then, and Shah Jahan is at his late age so he couldn’t control his whole empire.So he started losing battles. Three of his four sons were aiming to grab the empire. That’s when the play starts. You will see the down fall and the treachery of Aurangzeb, and his political shrewdness in the play.

Gauri:  Alright. Most of us know Shah Jahan as a romantic person who built the beautiful Taj Mahal for his wife, as a symbol of love. And of course, there’s this aspect of it of his life, because what you’re sharing right now is a completely different side of his life and different phase of his life. You have tried to bring in a little bit of romance and little bit of beauty into this script.

Subrata :  Yes, I added a scene. In fact, it is in one of the scenes in which Shah Jahan is dreaming. And in that dream Mumtaz comes back and they have some conversations.

Gauri:  What a lovely way to show that!

Subarta :  And Shah Jahan will be played by Anurag and Mumtaz will be played by Paramita. And then obviously we have a large cast.

Gauri : Talking of cast, how does it all work out for you? I know you have actors you’ve worked with before and then you have newer actors. So how do you make the decisions of who is going to play what role? Do you have auditions, or do you just kind of go with your gut feeling? How does it all work out?

Subrata:  It’s a very good point you made. As Jayanti mentioned that we provide opportunity to new comers, so we don’t always look for talent in acting. You may not have acted before but we can still take you if you are passionate about performing arts. This time we have introduced about 8 new actors.

Gauri:  Wow, that’s quite a challenge for you, I’m sure, as a director too.

Subrata :  Well yes. We have number of existing players from Mahabharat, and we have added 8-9 I think new players.

Gauri:  So how do train new actors? What are the specific things you do for somebody who is doing for the first time?

Subrata :  Although I’m the director, it’s a team effort, because Jayanti helps me and then obviously several other senior actors also help. But I think my approach to directing is to give them lot of freedom. In the sense that let them develop their character first. Then, I give certain constraints, because I have the overall vision. So I let them develop the character, I let them study. And it’s a very educational process. We learn about history. And we have very dynamic group. There will be several emails about history, and facts we share. So, we understand the characters, and in this way we analysis the characters as well. And then obviously when they come and they rehearse I show them various techniques. They get very good training, especially the new comers. They are exposed to various acting techniques, how you project mannerism, how you project a voice, how you gesture in different circumstances, how you move on stage, and all of these together. But I give them a lot of freedom, I hear from them first and see if that is within the constraint that I have set up because I have the overall vision.

Gauri :  Yes absolutely, I have seen you in action and I am honestly a big fan of your direction process. You do give people the freedom to own the character and to learn their own way, and just kind of give their best to the role. And then you tweak here and there. But you do it in a very sophisticated manner. I have read emails and I have seen the way you guide them and it’s not overwhelming or intimidating. It’s a very subtle way of telling and working with them while they don’t their lose their individual characteristics or their skill as an actor, it’s just fine tuned as we go along. So this is really nice. Jayanti, I would love to hear your role in the direction process.

Jayanti :  Just one more thing about direction and then team collaboration, especially for the newest actors and actress. Subrata is very good at letting the team collaborate among themselves. I do some rehearsals with them. I help them with voice modulations as much as I can. It really is a fun.

Gauri :  I could see that, director interaction with the actors and the whole team’s interaction with each other, there’s such beautiful chemistry. And I think that happens because the directing team and the founders, the both of you, have given that flexibility and that freedom to the team to be themselves on screen and off screen, on stage and off stage. It’s very visible. And I think not only off stage but on stage that chemistry really projects itself as a performance as they are comfortable with each other on stage.  I’m really looking forward to this fantastic show. Thank you so much both of you for being here today.  I’d really like to encourage everybody who is watching this video to come and watch the show Sept 27^th through 29^th . There are three different shows so you can come and join for any one of them. And could you please tell our audience where they can get the tickets

Jayanti :  There’s a website, that you can buy ticket from.

Subrata :  You can find details at our website which www.setu.us.

Gauri:   Ok, and there’s also a Facebook event so they can go there and that has details as well. So if you are on Facebook you can certainly go ahead and find that. We have that information on the Foundations TV page as well. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you.

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Chat with Actors of SETU for Shah Jahan

Transcribed by : Divya Mendiratta

Gauri :  Welcome to Foundations TV everyone. We have a whole group of talented people here tonight. These are the most talented people in town, who have been handpicked for special roles in Shah Jahan, which is coming up on Sept 27^th through 29^th . I’m personally extremely excited about that show. I have watched SETU’s Mahabharat before. And most of you, actually all 4 of you were part of that show. And I’ve seen you perform. I’m really excited to see how contrasting this one is going to be from Mahabharat. Lets talk about the main character of Shah Jahan, the main role being portrayed by Anurag Jain. I’d like to welcome you to Foundations TV and would love to hear from you how different your roles are in Mahabharat and Shah Jahan.

Anurag :  Thank you Gauri. The roles are very different. I was very scared, in fact, to jump into these roles. And I thank director Subrata Das for having confidence in me. This is something I’ve been saying all across. The Duryodhan was mighty, screaming loud. And this role requires a lot of variations of an older person. So there’s definitely a lot of a variety. And I think that’s what makes it challenging and very interesting.

Gauri :  Excellent, I have seen you perform in Mahabharat . And I’m looking forward to seeing you perform as Shah Jahan here as well. Our next guest is Jayanti. Jayanti is playing the role of the daughter of Shah Jahan. Shah Jahan , just by the name of the drama seems to be a very male dominate sort of a drama. What I want to hear from you is how significant is the role of the daughter of Shah Jahan. And did you have to do some research to educate yourself about the role.

Jayanti :  Thank you Gauri. First of all I did want to echo Aunrag, that Subrata’s direction is superb. He really lets you do your own research, find out about the character. So it’s a free reign in many ways,  while making sure everything is ok. I’m doing the role of Jahannara. In a very male dominated world, this play however has a significant character Jahannara, she spends a lot of time with her father Shah Jahan being in-prisoned. But at the same time she even goes to Aurangzeb’s court to challenge him. The character has a lot of different emotions, frustrations, anger, sadness because she was kind of a mother to all the siblings because their mother passed away very young.  I’m very excited about doing this show. I’ve read Jahannara’s diary. It’s quite a challenging role, and I’m looking forward to it.

Gauri :  Excellent, we are also looking forward to it. Before I move on to the other side I have one more question for our Shah Jahan here. Shah Jahan is known to be a very romantic person of course since he built Taj Mahal. Are you a romantic person in real life?

Aunrag :  As most men like to believe, I am. If you ask my wife, it’s a zero I score in that department. There’s always a romance, I mean, if you take romance out from the male female, there’s always romance of the arts. I’m a Romantic of the arts, I’m a romantic of expression, and I’m a romantic of talent and art and creativity. So yes, I think I’m a romantic person that way.

Gauri :  Thank you so much. This is such a beautiful answer. Alright, so moving on to my right hand side, we have.. Monty, Sridhar, Arjun. You’ve played different roles, of course Sridhar is his original self. I’ve seen him in different roles before and totally different get ups, and looks and feels with wigs on and make up as completely different characters. This is a whole new character for you, and I want to hear from you, Sridhar, is this exciting for you, and how it is different from what you’ve done before.

Sridhar :  Yes, this is very exciting. When Subrata da was looking at who to cast in the script , I couldn’t wait. So I called him, and asked him, “So, are you thinking for something for me or not?” He said, “Yes, I’m thinking. It’s a very important role.” He didn’t tell me what it was. So I called him again, and then he told me it was Dara what he was giving me. I read through Dara, and it felt very much like Arjun to me. As I had played Arjun in Mahabharat, I wanted to do something negative this time and I wanted to do something different. I was really looking to do this role, so I asked him if he would consider me. And when he gave it to me, I was happy. Although Aurangzeb really doesn’t come out negative when I actually look at that role, but yes I’m really looking forward to showing that subtle negativity, actually it’s in the result. Also being somehow normal and doing negative things. So let’s see how is comes out.

Gauri :  I like what you touched upon on a little bit. He was not really a bad

person. But he was doing certain things…..

Sridhar :  …..For a purpose.

Gauri :  And he did end up doing some bad deeds. Which is how life is as well. Sometimes good people will end up doing some bad things in their lives. Not to get too philosophical but did you want to talk anything more about your role?

Sridhar :  I’m enjoying this, a lot, because there are lot of characters, and there’s a lot of history out there. The thing I like about SETU is the kind of themes that they pick. It’s wonderful, because with Mahabharat I didn’t have to do anything to teach Mahabharat to my kids. All they had to do is watch me practice speak through the doors and see what papa is doing. So it was fun. They got the whole jist of Mahabharat. In fact I got it better than what I knew. And I think the same is going to happen with Shah Jahan. I think in that sense it is a double win for me. It’s a pleasure of actually doing the role, it’s a pleasure of making new friends, as well as creating something and my kids learn too.

Gauri : That’s a very good point that you’ve just made. It’s a way to share our history and culture and tradition with next generation. And we do invite all the kids to watch the show, because it’s going to be very educative. Something they can learn from. I think drama has such a deep impact on people. Watching Mahabharat was,as I call it, once-in-a-lifetime kind of an experience for me. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I was completely mesmerized by the sets, the costumes, the acting and the whole effect. And Shah Jahan is a character or a person in history, who I don’t know much about. I hope to learn a lot from this too.
So that takes us to introducing next guest here Ravi. Ravi, I actually met you for the first time today. I have seen your work before, but I’ve met you for the first time today. And my first impression of you I have to say is very positive, very composed, very calm kind of a person. That’s my question to you, how does your personality, as you, relate to the role that you are playing in Shah Jahan.

Ravi :  Thank you Gauri, I’m so humbled by your introduction and I hope I can answer your question. It’s totally a contrast, my Character vs myself.

Gauri:  Oh Really.!!

Ravi :  But it’s a tough job to do. I’m trying my level best.

Gauri:  From what I hear your best is going to be really good, because of what you did in Mahabharat. You actually jumped in and you took up a role, just 3 days before the show went on.

Ravi: I understand, about 5 days to do the character. Yes, I did it, I hope it came out good.

Gauri:  It did. It did. I watched it. So it was easier to jump in 5 days ago, or is it easier to do it now, that you have enough time to rehearse.

Ravi :  No, I have enough time now. I’ve been practicing pretty good now and, hope it comes out pretty good and hope everyone likes it.

Gauri: Excellent. Are there any characteristics of this particular role, Dara that come to you as it relates to his emotions, or any specific characteristics as a person.

Ravi :  It’s more of an emotional character. Most of the time, he is emotional with his family, dying, seeing them die. And finally assassinated or killed I would say, executed.

Gauri: Getting a glimpse of all the roles that each one of you are playing, it has been a journey for each one of you to learn a lot about our history. It’s going to be a great experience for each one of the persons who come and watch you, to learn about the history as well as feel the emotions, the drama and the effects of this wonderful play. Thank you all for joining us at Foundations TV today.

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Chat with the actors of upcoming show Shah Jahan

Transcribed by : Sunayana Kachroo

Gauri: Welcome to The Foundations TV. We have a group of talented actors who are going to be performing in “Shah Jahan” which is an upcoming show from Sept 27^th through 29^th.  We hope to see all of you there and to get that excitement going we have with us, some youthful energy of some young actors who are performing in the show. We will start by welcoming Priya to our interview today. Priya I would love to hear from  you what role you are playing in Shah Jahan and what is exciting to you about acting.

Priya: I am playing the role of Nadira, who is wife of Dara Shikoh, who is the eldest son of Shah Jahan. What I love about acting.: So, I got introduced to acting a year back when I started to volunteer for SETU. When you are in college you do so many things. I used to dance, I would do other things but I never attempted to act even though I had the desire to. So with this opportunity I had the platform to portray this side of me, sort of hone this side which I always wanted to.It just brings out a lot in me,  just remembering the dialogues, delivering it on stage. There is lot of stage fright I used to have and it sort of has helped me conquer that. Then I did a little part in Mahabharat last year and now I am doing this role. I am really excited about it. Its really a contrasting role. It is contrasting to my personality because Nadira is a very loving wife, very devoted and she has this sense of helplessness in the entire play. She wants something but she cannot get it. I feel it’s a matter of that time, that period as men were supposed to lead, they would be warriors, they would make decisions and now its all so different so its challenging that way because I have to think differently.

Gauri: I am sure. Looks like it’s been quite a journey for you, coming from no acting experience to coming on stage and learning so much not just about acting but also about the character as well as growing as a person. That’s excellent. So that leads us right into what I would like to hear from Vihangi who is also a new actress. This is the first time I believe you are acting.

Vihangi: The Very first time

Gauri: Oh my God, are you excited?

Vihangi: I am excited, I am nervous but I am hoping all my stage fright goes away because I always wanted to do this. I got this chance thank to Subrata and SETU. I am really excited and I really love the character that I am playing because it is kind of my personality too. I am shown to be pretty strong-willed  throughout the play and that’s the kind of person I am , so thankfully I didn’t have to do what she is doing (Priya playing Nadira). So that makes it easier for me to act.

Gauri: What role are you playing?

Vihangi: I am playing the role of Jaharat Unnisa who is the daughter of Dara and Nadira and grand daughter of Shah Jahan

Gauri: So are you excited about the costumes and the glory and glamour associated with this role?

Vihangi: Absolutely! It was my dream to be a princess.

Gauri: Wonderful. We also have Aaditya on my left hand side who has performed before with SETU in Mahabharat . He was Karan and now if you can share with us what role you are playing and how different is that from what you have done before?

Aaditya: I got associated with SETU last year and I got the role that I really liked to play that is “Karna” and that is one character in Mahabharat that’s really intriguing. Here I am playing the role of Suleman who is Dara Shikoh and Nadira’s elder son, and Shah Jahan’s eldest grandson. There are similarities in both the characters, both Karna and Suleman. The way I read about it is :- both are people who blindly follow ideologies. They are both extremely principled people which, apparently in Mahabharat as well as here, doesn’t really benefit them. They are at the losing end. That was one particular attribute that was very similar between both the characters.

Gauri: I love the depth with which you are analyzing both the characters. And of course there is a fun aspect to it which I have seen in the rehearsal where all the beautiful women are dancing in front of you. So share something about that. How exciting is that for you?

Aaditya: Interestingly that is the only scene that relaxed for me in the entire play. I am either in the war field or I am trapped in the Jail.

Gauri: I just happened to see that one scene.

Aaditya: I think it is at the rehearsal stage right now so its very hilarious. As you know I am supposed to be mesmerized by these women which I am, because our  troupe is doing a wonderful job with dance and choreography and we have this scene where I am trying to repel one of the dancers. It is funny when you are doing this because there are long dialogues and things that we typically have not said. It is funny because that’s the only part where we get to have a chuckle at the end of it. At least for my role.

Gauri: Wonderful , so there is lot of fun associated with rehearsing for such a serious theme. Thank you. Now lets welcome Yusuf. He is youngest artist in the team and that I am sure, is very very inspiring to anybody who is going to watch this video , who is of your age and children who are going to come and watch the play as well. So my question you is ….what role are you playing and how is it working with all these grownups?

Yusuf: I play the role of Sipar Shikoh , son of Dara and grandson of Shah Jahan. First of all working with these people was really bad, they are terrible ( Laughter)…No no not really.. I am just kidding. These guys are awesome, they are so nice to me and working with them is great . I have done school plays and school musicals and working with kids of my age and then with these guys, it’s a huge maturity level difference. I mean I can talk to different people and I can learn to talk to adults and interact with them and make new friends . Its amazing here and to all you kids out there I sincerely suggest you come here and sign up because it’s a great opportunity.

Gauri:  I love that, I love that aspect of what you just said. Is there an interesting incident that you would like to share with us that happened during rehearsals.

Yusuf: There was  one scene (laughter)..

Yusuf: He  ( Suleman) looks in the distance and says “Sipar” my brother and I do this ( the sign of brotherhood in US..crossing the heart and flying a kiss ).

Aaditya: We are trying to introduce that into the play. But I don’t know how Subrata is going to take it.

Yusuf: Hopefully !

Dhanashree: Looks pretty cool

Gauri : You might able to convince him. Ok great. Thank you so much for sharing all that and Dhanashree I think I will let you take the lead now and add something to having Yusuf in the team what does that mean and how interesting that is?

Dhanashree: Of course its been very interesting. It i not like having a kid around because he can carry on a conversation on anything under the sun and just like adults. So its just wonderful knowing him and some of us have a plan, whenever we have kids to send them to his mom.

Yusuf: No no do not send kids to my mom, that’s a nightmare. (laughter) I am just kidding.

Gauri: Alright,  coming to your role specifically, I have seen you perform as Draupadi in Mahabharat. That was  such a serious and an impactful role and very beautifully portrayed ,of course. Tell us something about your role in Shah Jahan and how it relates to what your previous role was?

Dhanashree : I am playing the role of Queen Mahamaya. She is  wife of king Jaswant Singh. I think this role is very much similar to the role of Draupadi that I played before in Mahabharat. They both had similar challenges in front of them, they both loved their husband very much  but they had this huge responsibility to make their husband aware of what mistakes they are making and at the same time inspire them and motivate them to do the right thing. All this time there is this underlying expression of unconditional love. I think that was very complicated for me to learn at the time of Mahabharat and it was great growth for me as person and the growth continues with this role.

Gauri: Beautiful! Beautiful! So from what I hear by talking to each one of you, this journey has been a give and take. You are putting in so much energy , your youthful energy, into this whole process and you are also getting lot of learnings from this. You are maturing from this process and you are learning a lot about different characters. There is depth in each and every character so looks like each one of you have put time and effort  to learn and somehow will be able to implement it in your lives later on. It has been great chatting with all of you. Thank you so much for being here.

Chat with directing team and actors of SBAGD

Transcribed by :
Divya Mendiratta
Gauri:  Welcome everybody to Foundations TV. We are so excited to be here today at Jawed ji’s studio, with a fantastic team of actors as well as the direction team of Sahib, Bibi aur Guru Dutt show, which is going to be on Sept 7^th. So we are very excited first of all to start with Meena who is going to introduce some of the cast here.

Meena: Thank you Gauri, and thank you Foundations TV for another opportunity to speak to all of you. So as you know Sahib, Bibi aur Guru Dutt the musical is an event that’s coming at Keefe Tech school auditorium on Sept 7^th. We have tried to put posters, fliers and Facebook messages everywhere so please check it out, and please do come and enjoy the show. I’m so happy to be working with this great team of members, including the directorial team today and the actors. There are many people, all of whom are not present today. So this is just a jhalak (glimpse) of what you will be seeing in the upcoming event. So what would you like to know about the event Gauri?

Gauri:  I would actually like to know a little bit about our director Ram. I know there is a story behind how you know him, and how he is the right choice for being the director of this fantastic show. So please do introduce him, and please do let us know how you found him.

Meena:  Actually, Ram is relatively new to this audience in terms of musical or music based shows. But he has a long association with drama and acting. I’ve know him for over 20 years, I think Ram. We met in a Tamil drama scene where he was a director and I was apparently an actress. That’s what he says, I told him I had a non-speaking role, he said no I had few lines.

Ram: Some funny lines.

Meena:  When this event came up, obviously we were deciding how to proceed, and what our team members need to be. One thing really attracted me to Ram in terms of doing this…. I should actually goes back, we did work on a project in 2008 which was called Meera Bai the Musical, which was music on the life of Meera Bai which was directed by Ram, with lot of children acting. So, to come back to now, he is a music buff and a movie buff, and he just loves and we’ve had long discussions about movies and directions and different classes of movies. Since this musical is about the movie director, and it had lot of movie trivia and clips, scene, Ram really came to mind. And when I spoke to him, he was enthusiastic, he sort of knew about this project past few years peripherally, but then he got more involved as we got closer. Here he is, our director, Ram Rama Krishnan. 

Ram:  Hello, I’m a little nervous. So I’m going to stumble a little. Forgive me, I’m the director not an actor. When Meena approached me about this project, I was little hesitant in the beginning for two reasons. One I was an outsider like Meena said, and I wasn’t sure what her vision was in the beginning. But when she told me that she is looking for more than a musical. She was looking for drama with music in it, and that got me little excited. I think the challenge of bringing his life down to stage, and still keep intact all the 19 to 20 songs that going to be sung live and bring all of them seamlessly together, I thought was a good challenge, and I was excited to be part of that. Another thing was I was inspired by the movie Amadeus, which was originally a Broadway play. It was made into an Oscar winning movie, about the life of another musical genius, Mozart. Who passed away at the age of 31. And the movie showed his life through his music. And I felt this is, in a way a good way to do that, bring Guru Dutt’s life through his movies and his music. It’s been a very rewarding experience for me already, because coming in as an outsider like I said it’s been a great experience. I have been working with very dedicated talented people. So I’m looking forward to successful completion of this project, so to speak.

Speaking of making new friends I would like to introduce Kumkum. I’ve got to know her already and view her as a friend already. She is the stage director for the play. She and I are already working close together.

Kumkum:  Thank you Ram. What would you like to know Gauri?

Gauri:  I would like to know, what is unique about this particular show for you. I have personally worked with you on other shows. You are such a brilliant person behind stage.  I have seen the effects of that brilliance show on stage. And all the rehearsals your inputs are very - very specific, very clear, and to the point and so effective. So I’ve had a great journey with you all through different shows, but what I want to hear from you, of course you bring all the talent and skill with you, what is it that is unique to you in this particular show.

Kumkum:  Well this is a very unique show. We are fortunate to be in an area, where we have a glut of shows. But what is unique to me about this show, is the vision behind this show. I’ve have known Meena for a very long time, and this has been something that has been dear to her heart. What’s become very unique in my role in this, is the involvement with so many aspects, so many details to pull together, so usually as stage director, people usually know me as a MC but I’m shifting into stage direction, you pretty much are responsible for making sure that what the audience seems in front of them is a seamless coordination. But when you have a show which has singing, acting, and I won’t give too much away some other stuff too, then it becomes very important to understand the vision of the director and do stage direction in a way where that is pulled in too. And Ram is really inspiring. He has been very inspiring and he has made me remember long lost acting days, college days. And it has been a pleasure so far, I’ve enjoyed working with you.

Gauri: That is such a sweet and special thing to say. I think at this time we will take a short break.

Interlude

Gauri:  Welcome back everybody, Meena, I’ll actually hand over the mic to you to introduce the actors.

Meena:  Thanks again Gauri. Nice to be back. So, our acting team is a very large one and constitutes a lot people playing roles of people that you’ve seen on screen and behind the screen all of whom were associated with Guru Dutt ji and his films. So I want to actually start with Shekhar ji, Shekhar Shastri. Who is an extremely erudite, I would say scholarly, though he might not like it, personality in this area. He is a poet, he is an actor, he is writer and there is more to him than even I know. So I’ll have him speak a little bit about his experience and role in Sahib, Bibi and Guru Dutt, The Musical.

Shekhar:  Thank you Meena. When Meena brought up this ideas of doing this show, I was already contemplating doing one on Guru Dutt. I’ve been obsessed with Guru Dutt for the longest time, as far I can remember from my childhood. And as I was growing up and became interested in literature and writing, The Vijay of Pyasa was always, the arc type poet. So I have been singing the songs from Guru Dutt movies for a long time. And the role of the poet in the society has never been brought up as well as was brought up in Pyasa by Guru Dutt. And subsequently, there is another aspect of Guru Dutt which attracted me to becoming interested in this particular show and performing in this very exciting show, is that Guru Dutt was a master of presenting relationships that were never consummated, yet profound and immensely beautiful. And so this is quite a privilege to belong to this fabulous team. And thank you Meena, Ram, Kumkum and rest of the team.

Meena: Great, you are so welcome. And please come and watch Shekhar in action on Sept 7^th. I’m going to move on now to Pallavi, Pallavi Nagesha, who is a dancer, she’s an actor, and has many other talents. She is also a choreographer. She helped in direction of many events. She is an interesting lady, because I don’t know her very well, but we did meet and participate in couple of shows actually with Shekhar Shastri Ji. She really strikes me as a very intense person, I would really say a woman of substance. So she got a role that is quite interesting and I think you will really again enjoy watching her in our event.

Pallavi: Thank you Meena, I’m awfully humbled by that introduction. I should first thank you for giving me this opportunity and I really appreciate it. I know we’ve had long conversations about this, and I’m glad it came to be this way. It’s a wonderful team, I think the singers are amazing, all the acting and directing that I’ve seen thus far has been really good. So it’s going to be a very-very good show. And.. My sort of affair, romance with Guru Dutt began when I was really very young, about 7-8 when I saw Pyasa. I instantly fell in love with this man, even today tell my husband, had I the chance he would be the one. But what was interesting, which also later became a paper for my film appreciation class, was his use of light and darkness. And I was always amazed by the shadows he created and how he use the light to not just portray mood and emotion but the character themselves. And it’s not the different characters are light or darkness, it’s the same character, it’s the same person can be light and darkness. And he expertly used his light to portray that, and I’m always amazed how well he does that. And the roles I’m performing are again both light and darkness and I’m really excited to switch from one to another , and in fact in some of them switch in between from one to another. And it’s a great challenge, and everybody guiding me, Ram has been amazing telling me what to do and how to do it. And Shekhar also has been helping me out. And it will be an amazing show and I’m sure all of will come and will have a great grand time. And we will learn that it’s not just the movie, it’s everything that goes in between. It’s just like a book, you read between the lines and that’s what you get.

Meena:  Great!! Thanks Pallavi. And now to our dear friend Gauri. Gauri has played a very big role not only on stage, probably a bigger role off stage. She’s been such a huge help as you know with Foundations TV assisting our event, supporting our event. We do appreciate all you have done and continuing to do for us. On stage Gauri is playing a very interesting role, she’s got a great personality I think people have seen her before on stage in Madhubala etc. and I’ll ask her what she thinks about the event and her role in the event.

Gauri:  I, for one, besides what you just said Meena, about the back stage and the Foundations TV association which is a whole long story, but I won’t go over there yet. Of course that has been a lot of fun. But I think I’m super excited to be on stage for this one, especially because the character that I’m portraying is of a girl who is very bubbly, full of herself, full of  life kind of a person, and I can actually relate to her in some ways in some phases of my life, and she seems to be a little naïve and little spoilt. So it’s a character where you can never over do the expression, as much as u put into it, will always fall in the right place. So, I think that’s what makes it so much fun performing on stage for this particular character and I’m really-really looking forward to do this, and seeing how everybody else enjoys me on the stage. And this whole show is coming together beautifully. Really excited for it.

Meena :  Thank you so much Gauri! And again as I mentioned there are many actors in our event who are not able to here today. Please check out their names on the flier you’ll see many familiar and friendly faces and names there, so you can find out what roles they are playing as well.

Gauri:  Switching my hat now over as the host of this show from Foundations TV. I would like to thank the entire team, the directions team and as well as the actors who are present here. And Meena, Jawed ji and the camera person Ansh for this particular show, for making this happen. I think this has been one of the best shows of Foundations TV so far. Thank you so much all of you. Thank you so much for coming. We wish you all the best for the show.

Chat with Rajeev Kumar

Transcribed by: Sunayana Kachroo

Gauri : Welcome to the foundations Tv. Our guest is Rajeev Kumar who is the founding member of an organization Snehalaya , which has been working for few decades for women and children  in distress

My interaction with Rajeev was at Meena Sundarama’s house when we met for the first time during a meeting for Sahab Bibi aur Guru Dutt. Before I even Welcome Rajiv, I have to say that one of the things that he did really well there was the way he presented Snehlaya to us. He captivated the audience and it almost felt like a conversation with each one of us. He walked us though the growth of the organization, how it was founded, and how well it has evolved. I think it is such an interesting story.

While I welcome you to foundations TV, that’s what I would like to start with. I would love to hear from you about Snehalaya. I would like to know why was it started , when was it started and where is it today.

Rajeev:  Thank You Gauri ,first of all I thank you for giving me an opportunity to be here at Foundations studio. You guys are doing an amazing job.  As far as Snehalaya goes , it goes back to 1989, when a school going kid Girish Kulkarni had the desire to do something for the children of commercial sex workers. He had his own inspiration, he had his own vision about it . We were a group of friends who met with him and Snehalaya was born in his house and his heart. We started working with a few children at Chitragali…which is a red light area in Ahmednagar. The purpose was to break nexus and the cycle in which these children are caught.  These children have been conceived to be either commercial sex workers or to be pimps. That’s why their mothers conceive them. We wanted to break that cycle. It was very hard to penetrate in those red light areas. It took us many months, I would say years  to win the trust and confidence of the mothers of the pimps and goons and of the gurus and underworlds who operate from red light areas. We were young, I was completing my engineering and Girish was finishing his graduation from college, so I think it was very challenging for us. We never thought that we will be doing so many things. When I look back I don’t think we had a grand vision but I think over period of time, the need made us grow and do different things. So today, when we look back we see Snehalaya as a very powerful force in the society. We have been working for various groups and maybe I can walk you thought some of the key projects if you want. So we started Snehalaya for Children of commercial sex workers. We realized that we were not being able to make a significant difference in their lives by just giving them some interaction and exposure because they ultimately went back home to their mother’s house. So, we thought we will build a home for them. We had no money , we had no land , all we had was a desire. There was one gentle man Mr. Mutha, he was very kind and he said that you guys are young and if you guys do a good job, I will give you more land here is an acre of land. That’s where we started and we got our first bunch  of 6-7 kids in 1997,  in this home. It was constructed in 45,000 Rupees which is like $1000 today  or less than that probably. Then, very soon we started getting children that were HIV positive and we decided that we should create a separate section for HIV infected children and women. So, one of the first hospital or care centre for HIV affected patients was created. Quickly, we saw that a lot of people were calling us that this child is being abused , trafficked,  exploited  and can you do something. So we set up 24/7 help line which is like 911 here in America. Unfortunately, we don’t have something like that in India. So, we started helpline and started rescuing children. It has been an  amazing journey. Today we get almost 200-250 calls , and our people go and rescue them. It is full of action. A lot of our young volunteers want to be part of such projects. Later on It was I think late 2000, when we started getting calls that “we have found a baby in a dumpster, we have found baby at a police station, we have found baby wrapped in a news  paper, 2-4 days old babies. Would you guys come and help?” We didn’t know what to do with them. Then  we decided to set up an adoption centre. You will be glad to know that over 300 children  have been given new set of parents and a family and a home across the world and I have some of those children here in  America. Some are in India and some in other parts of the world. Somewhere in 2004, if I am not wrong, we thought that urbanization is really changing the demographics of the country and too many slums were coming up. In 2020-25 almost 20- 25% of India’s population will be living in slums. So we decided that we should do something in the slums because slums make the real recruitment ground for women who were going in for commercial sex, for pimps, for underworld, for terrorism and for many vices of the society. So, we have now started something called as Balbhavan which operates in 5 different  slums in Ahmednagar and also one in Pune where we groom and take care of the entire family on aspects of education , health ,literacy, then de-addiction, and saving patterns.  We have built some self help groups and vocational training for women. That was Bal-Bhavan.

After Bal Bhavan we have seen that more and more cases of the demand and need for women training,  is coming up. Lot of women want to come out of that trade. So we are focusing on skills and are providing them new skills. I think we have a long way to go. We are trying to create a Himmatgram which is another 20 acres of campus which will be one of its kind. This will be an integrated campus for HIV infected people. Lastly, which was done this year, we have created a platform to help women who have been raped which is called Spraha . We did that launch just few months back where we try to provide counseling, legal help and medical help to women who unfortunately have gone through this trauma.

So that’s the story of Snehalaya . It can go on forever, but I will like to stop here.

Gauri: This is indeed very-very touching. You know, it is very easy listening to success stories but anytime I have heard you before and I am hearing you today, I feel like this is something that is so close to the ground. I have seen some videos of women who gone through so much. It requires a lot of courage and a lot of persistence , dedication and lot of sincerity to believe in a cause like this and to continue to work towards the betterment of women and children. These are areas that most of us would shy away from because we are happy in our lives. We are doing things that keep us happy and getting what we want from our lives and to come out of that mode, to be able to feel how those people might  be feeling and do something about that, I think it is such a touching journey.  So, kudos to you and your team,  definitely for coming where you are today.

Gauri: Rajeev, from what I understand, you have also written a book about Snehalya and its work . Could you tell us a little bit about it .

Rajeev : Yes , we just launched a book titled “Defying Destinies”. It is actually a compilation of all the case studies, of  the rescues that we have done in last 7-8 years, best practices, learnings that we have had, what we did right , and what we didn’t do right. May be, it will be a great guide for other NGO’s who are working in this field. One very interesting judgment is there in that book which was given by high court –to life imprisonment for almost 20 people in trafficking case of two minor girls. Please read it and I would love to give it to you.

Gauri: I would certainly love to read it myself and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to work in an NGO or has any desire to learn from this process. So, how would they get hold of this  book?

Rajeev:  We did not have any publisher. Snehalaya is the publisher. It is on our website and we would love to ship it to you. If you want it, you can send an email to info@snehalaya.org , we will send it you.

Gauri : I have watched the first episode of Satyamay Vijayate which was the TV serial by Aamir khan and the first episode itself was on female feticide and Aamir Khan had endorsed your organization Snehalaya, which is pretty commendable. I want to understand from you, what that endorsement means to you. Of course,  it means a whole lot for someone who is looking into organization but being inside the organization what does it mean to you?

Rajeev: Very good question. I will say that it was really a turning point for Snehalaya, being endorsed by Satyamay ViJayate. For almost two decades we have been working in this area and Aamir khan production team  - Swati Bhatkar  Satyajit Bhatkar, the directors of that program , they identified Snehalaya. Not only that, Aamir and his team visited Snehalaya twice. Our children have been so happy seeing them in the campus. He came with his entire team. They performed for our children and he launched Satyamay Vijayate DVD. On May 1^st we had an event, a workshop on Trafficking and Natural Calamity because of the drought condition in Maharashtra. Both Aamir khan and Anna Hazare were there for that workshop. You will be surprised to know every 22 minutes there is woman or a girl child being raped in the world, every 10 minutes there is girl who is being trafficked. Trafficking is the third largest organized crime after drug and weapons and it’s a very serious problem. It is around 800 billion dollar industry and we really want to work and motivate people against human trafficking. So, Satyamay Vijayate and Aamir khan’s endorsement meant a lot to us both financially as well as being known in the society. We are thankful to them.

Gauri: Wonderful and you have also shared some of the pictures with us which are part of this presentation,. We would also put together a powerpoint presentation or a slide show to share with  our audiences all the phenomenal work that has been endorsed by Aamir Khan that you do at Snehalaya.

Gauri: Now that we have heard so much about the organization and everybody who has heard this interview feels connected and wants to contribute, somehow towards this organization and towards this cause. I would like to share with everybody that one way to do that is by coming to the Sahib Bibi Aur Guru Dutt show , a musical evening which is being  organized on Sep 7^th , which is actually a fund raiser for this wonderful organization run by extremely sincere people. We can all be very assured that this cause is a genuine cause. We can be assured that the efforts that the team of Sahib Bibi Aur Guru Dutt are putting , all those efforts are going to go towards this cause. We are all very excited actually and it adds to the excitement of the organizing committee as well. My question to you though is, how does this benefit the organization?

Rajeev: Well, the obvious answer is that it financially benefits the organization but more than that you may look towards these events as an embracement of our team ,our work and we feel that more and more people are part of Snehalaya family. I would welcome all the people who are coming for that event to Snehalaya. If you are coming to India, please visit Snehalaya at Ahmednagar. It is around 180 kms from Mumbai. We would love to have you there. Our children would love to have you there. We run a radio that is Snehalaya radio. It is an FM channel. We would love to play that event for our children and for people there at Ahmednagar to show how much love and affection we are getting in Boston. Thank you to Meena Sundaram , to you and to the entire team. It is a very big team that’s trying to put together this show. Thank you very much.

Gauri: Thank you so much . That really makes us feel very special. All the effort becomes really really authentic by listening to everything that you have shared with us today . So, thank you so much for coming and I would personally like to wish you good luck. I know after spending 10 years in this country, you are moving back to India only for this cause and your dedication towards this cause. We are very proud of you as a community and we wish you all the very best from The Foundations TV.