In 2025, actor-filmmaker-singer Anjan Dutt will complete 55 years of his association with the craft of theatre! It had all started with Dutt taking one-to-one lessons in stage acting from Badal Sircar, which subsequently led to him working for a theatre company in West Berlin, and eventually staging a variety of productions over the decades in Calcutta. With a substantial body of work on the stage that can be described as avant-garde, experimental and often ahead of its times, Dutt created his own unique brand of theatre for the Bengal stage. After his tryst with theatre for over five decades, Dutt has declared his upcoming play, Aro Ekta Lear, to be his last stage production. Ahead of the premiere show at Gyan Manch tomorrow, the actor-director talks to t2OS about his five-decade association with the stage, why he chose Shakespeare for his last play and why he feels he needs to retire from stage.

FIRST STEPS IN THEATRE...

I started my career in theatre at the age of 21 by translating. When I came from Darjeeling in 1970 and was only 16 years old, I trained in acting, one-to-one, under Badal Sircar. Then I decided to do theatre. Inspired by existentialist literature, I started with Jean-Paul Sartre. In 1978, I did my first production. I didn’t act in that play, I directed. Utpal Dutt, Shambhu Mitra and Nandikar were the great guns in group theatre in those days. They were very popular but I belonged to the alternative kind. That kind of theatre did not attract me. The only theatre that I could appreciate was Badal Sircar’s proscenium theatre but I didn’t do proscenium.

I was very moved by whatever I learnt from European theatre. At that point, Peter Brook was my reference and I was very keen to move out to Europe and do theatre. I was not interested in Calcutta. And since then, I followed it up with more and more existentialist plays which I translated into Bengali myself. I got very little audience for such plays and I did sponsored productions with the help of Alliance Francaise and later Max Mueller Bhavan. I came across Bertolt Brecht but was not really inspired by Brecht. I was more inspired by Peter Weiss and the existentialist type. I was more into a mix of modern and period costumes, created different looks on the stage, maybe kept the stage bare, the names of the characters were the same but they were speaking in Bangla. I made it a slightly more absurdist production, which did not go well with the audience here because nobody understood anything. But I got very good reviews from many.

CALL OF THE WEST...

After working with Mrinal Sen and acting in his films, I chose to go to Berlin. West Berlin. It was in 1982. I had a job for five years there at a theatre company, which was very close to The Berlin Wall. Despite being an Indian, I could get a day pass. It was one stop in the metro. My time was from 8am till 8pm. By 8pm I had to be on the other side of the gate. I saw a lot of Eastern plays and actually went to Brecht’s theatre and slowly got inspired by Brecht. In West Berlin, I went by train to France and saw a lot of German and French productions by great people and I was very inspired by that kind of theatre.

But I realised I could never do that kind of theatre in Calcutta because the stage was so expensive, everybody was paid, great film stars were acting, a lot of money was involved and tickets were very highly priced. Cinema was more for the working class and theatre was for the elites. We had to be dressed in coats and leather jackets but since I was working there as a theatre worker, I would get a pass and could watch any play for free. So, I always saw a lot of theatre. My group was slightly on the downside but very interesting — Theatre Manfaktur. I was so young that they didn’t take me seriously at all! (Laughs) They gave me a job because Tankred Dorst loved my work when I did a play for him during his visit to Calcutta and made an effort to get me there through Max Mueller Bhavan.

In Munich, I met Tankred. And through him, I met some film people who knew Mrinal Sen and had asked me to stay in their homes as I was Sen’s actor. It was there that I got interested in cinema once again. I saw a lot of VHS sitting in their houses and that is when I saw world cinema. In fact, I saw Mrinal Sen and Satyajit Ray there; I used to never take them seriously when I was in Calcutta. So, I told them, I need to go back and do cinema. This kind of theatre is not possible for me. People were nude and completely undressed and I was being slandered for being obscene in Calcutta; Shakespeare was not like Shakespeare, in Hamlet the ghost was not a ghost and it was a corporate Hamlet. Strange adaptations were being done. I did not complete my tenure and asked them to send me back.

TRYST WITH FILMS...

Before leaving Calcutta, I already fell in love with Calcutta and I missed Mrinal Sen. But the deal was, I had to come back and do theatre because they had given me the job. I came back and did certain productions produced by Max Mueller Bhavan. I did some Brecht and they were far better than my previous ones and unique at that point in time. I still did not get an audience but I did certain interesting things which were appreciated by all.

Then the group fell apart and I said I had to do films and be an assistant to Mrinal Sen. Later, I started singing and then making my own films. In 2012, when I made Dutta Vs Dutta, I wanted to produce films. By that time, I made some money from singing and all and I opened Anjan Dutt Production mainly to produce films. The producer gave me the money and I produced it for him. I did the line production. That was since Ranjana Ami Ar Ashbona.

RETURN TO THE STAGE...

I thought I will do my kind of theatre, on my professional terms, pay everybody, get professionals and semi-professionals and people from television. I got into translation again and deconstructed the plays. I did Brecht’s Galileo but not in period costumes. I did it exactly like Brecht but interpreted it through different designs. I did my interpretation of Galileo but without changing a word of the original text or without changing the names of any character. I didn’t agree with the concept of Bengali adaptations where Godot’s name is changed to some Surjo… the word Godot cannot change. They are not waiting for Surjo, they are waiting for Godot (in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot). The name Vladimir has to remain. They can talk in Bengali but they have to dress like the tramp. They cannot wear pyjamas and do it. It is more of an interpretation that I started. Everyone said it was a great play. And I started pricing the tickets higher. It is a Western-dressed character talking in Bangla. It means it is a translation and that is how it is done all over the world.

Before Covid, I stopped films and I put all my money in theatre. I did five plays — 2012, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2020. After Galileo, I did The Threepenny Opera directed by my wife Chanda Dutt and I paid royalty for getting the text. Then I did Death of a Salesman and paid for the rights to Arthur Miller’s granddaughter. Everything was there in place but the way I interpreted, I started playing around with the theatre. I was playing around with the text, which is more of deconstruction and interpretation. But it was not the typical Brecht.

Just before Covid, I thought I never did any Indian production. That is when I did Rabindranath Tagore’s Bishorjon. I called it Raghupati because I completely deconstructed it. I showed how the sexual crisis slowly takes shape into a political crisis. People liked it and since I was a popular singer and my films were popular by that time, I got an audience, too. There were solid 10-12 shows.

After Raghupati, we got calls from London and all but with Covid it was a disaster. My earlier productions, before and after Germany, were all sponsored, so when people didn’t come, we didn’t care. Because the production was paid for. But from 2012, it was my money. I made little profit with the plays I was doing. But with Raghupati, I lost all my money.

AVOIDING GROUP THEATRE...

Group theatre has too many rules. Director is almighty kind of thing. Theatre is an actor’s job, they are individuals. The actor can interpret a role, director is to guide. Group theatre to me is very much like a party. Everybody has to say good. Some methods of group theatre don’t work for me. I am not saying this by not practising it.

So, when I do theatre I don’t do cinema and I cut down on my concerts. I tell my actors to not take up too much. Mega serial is not possible. That’s how I choose my actors. My actors in King Lear are all film actors but everybody has to read the text. I gave them annotated versions of the text. I made everybody read it. The initial translation was so obscene. I translated literally into Bangla. We are not trying to make an obscene effect but the shock element has to be there. We had to change the language in a well-crafted way for the slangs. It is neither poetic, nor obscene yet local. I did basic translation but then sat with the actor and did it. The bad words have to be handled. Some are couplets, which I have kept. I have taken the liberty to completely deconstruct it.

SHAKESPEARE, AT LAST...

After doing Chaalchitra Ekhon, I felt I needed to take time off because I want to only produce my own films. I will make small films, but I will produce my own films. I am not going to look for producers any more. I am an old man. I am 71. And everyone started telling me to do theatre and I realised I should be doing theatre if I am not doing a film. But when I started with theatre, I realised I am too old. In concerts, you don’t feel it. We sit and stand. But the sheer physicality in my theatre, things I make my actors do... when I was writing, I realised I couldn’t do this anymore. This has to be my last. I can’t fall or pick up somebody on my shoulders and without that I cannot do theatre. I cannot sit and talk and call it theatre.

Initially, I was working on Brecht. I was working on a Greek tragedy, Oedipus. But a Brechtian Oedipus. I was thinking of Greek tragedy and was thinking of doing it in an open space but then I realised I cannot do Oedipus. I am too old to do Oedipus. If this has to be my last play, then it has to be great. And Shakespeare is something I have never done. Then I decided it had to be Shakespeare.

It took me a long time to understand theatre spiritually. Without a spiritual understanding, it is not possible to do Shakespeare. There is politics, sex and everything else. But I am more into sexuality, politics, existentialism and the existential crisis. It is too difficult to produce, so I avoided it for so long. At my age, the only Shakespeare that I can do and play is King Lear. Then I came up with a completely edited version and it turned out to be a two-hour production. Thereby, I have kept all the main characters and edited it ruthlessly and kept the main scenes only and 11 characters and interpreted it in my way. I have not actually liked all the Lear that I have seen so far. So, I have to really change and take a relook at it.

King Lear was one play which Queen Victoria had banned despite being a Shakespeare fan because it was too violent and too full of corruption for the royalty. This is a very violent play. There is a blinding scene, poisoning, stabbing. I am doing all that. To do that, I decided this had to be my last. King Lear is blind. For me, King Lear was never a king. That is why the eyes are not there in the poster. He was a corrupt person who was taking everything for granted. He was the epitome of corruption. He was full of pride, and physically, morally and sexually corrupt for me. When he gives the kingdom to his daughters, it becomes worse because they are fascists and fundamentalists. He becomes sort of a hermit by losing his kingdom. He understands poverty and pain. Everything happens in reverse. Instead of becoming mad later, once he loses everything, he becomes sane. But I have no answer for my audience. King Lear also doesn’t have an answer. The answer is with the audience.

I think my understanding of Shakespeare became more and more complex and that is why I avoided it for so long. The more I read, I realised that his tragedies were far better than his comedies. Because there were a lot of comic elements in his tragedies. And I feel a very few have understood Shakespeare. I feel the Charles Lamb Shakespeare has survived in Bengal, not the complex Shakespeare. Shakespeare on one hand is easy for us to understand. It is so common, so commercial and so full of melodrama but those are for the groundlings, those who are sitting below. For the people who are sitting above, the lords and ladies were getting something totally different. That is very rare. That understanding is very rare.

It is while performing Death of a Salesman, I realised that Hamlet is not confused. The problem of Hamlet is education. It is knowledge that is telling him you kill or not kill it is the same. It is his knowledge which is disturbing. It is a tragedy of knowledge. And very few productions talk about that. It is with age I have started realising perhaps you can look at Hamlet this way. It is not easy to say Lear is blind. I have to look at every word and then say yeah he is not seeing. He is watching but not seeing. He is just watching and having fun. He is totally physical and from physical he reaches a spiritual stage and a sorry stage. And Gloucester when he had his eyes couldn’t see that Edmund was the bad guy. When he lost his eyes, he realised that. Gloucester is the parallel of King Lear. Gloucester when he loses his eyes, finds his inner eyes.

BEING SPIRITUAL...

I think for the first time in my life I am being spiritual. I am losing my existential belief. If I would have done this play earlier, I wouldn’t have made it so spiritual, humanist, and finally, humble. I would have made him into an individual. Today’s Anjan Dutt is, I think… I seriously feel I need to for at least once in my life before I go, because this is absolutely the final leg… for once in my life I have to talk about the displaced people, I have to feel sorry for them, and I feel that today.

Some place or someone beyond man, I think that there is God. Being old, King Lear is my own belief that there is something beyond man. I started reading a lot of spiritual literature. Today, I listen to more Cohen than Dylan. I read a lot of humanist literature rather than the anarchist type. So personally, yes… my Lear is more spiritual at the end. I don’t know what is there but there might be something beyond. I cannot accept God but I cannot also accept the concept of no God. It is a religious belief but also more of a human spiritual belief. The old Anjan Dutt would love the Calcutta chaos and the cosmopolitan culture. Today, I feel good outside the city. I feel good amidst nature. I am bringing in that and looking at Lear that way.

I think Shakespeare led me to it (spirituality). A few years back, when I did Rabindranath, I completely disowned this religious aspect. It was about a fundamentalist religion. There was hardly anything called religion. It was power, sex and all that. Today if I do it, I would do it differently. I never thought of that. I think it is Shakespeare… by doing Shakespeare I have changed. By doing Brecht, Sartre I had changed. It has really been just about seven-eight months. Last December, I didn’t feel like this. I think it was there. The anguish in me… existentialists are very anguished people. I have lost that anguish. I can forgive much more.

I am moving towards Christianity as it forgives. Today the world is filled with too much hate. I understand people much more today than I used to before. I understand there is also a place for people who are not intelligent. I understand that there will be a flipside of social media. I don’t condone crime but I understand if someone makes a mistake, forgive and move on. But regressiveness is something I cannot take.

MIRRORING THE TIMES...

If I look around today, I think my society is very corrupt and my government is very corrupt but if this government doesn’t work then what I see is a very fundamentalist government. In my King Lear, it will be clearly evident what I am trying to say and clearly evident as to where India is leading to. Clearly evident, but my point is I don’t have to walk the streets because my songs are social. I am not saying that I am a non-political person but I don’t have to join a rally. My songs and cinema are all political in a way. Obviously, if something is happening my support goes out. People can be good filmmakers, honest people and social activists. I respect Aparna Sen and Koushik Sen for what they do. I truly respect that and they have been doing activism both in their work and in their lives. But for me, whatever I have to say, I will say through my theatre rather than out on the street. I am not that kind of a person.

BIDDING ADIEU...

Of course, every rehearsal I am feeling bad and I am crying but I know my body aches and I have to leave. People are saying you can always do workshops and give talks. I have accepted it. August is a long way. I am happy that I can be on stage for so many months from November. A lot of people are saying why are you saying it is your last? It is not a publicity stunt. In a way, I am making a choice and making a statement that my kind of theatre is not sitting and talking on stage. When I am taking the onus on me and saying theatre is physical then I am also saying there is no non-physical theatre. In music also I made a choice. We do it more in a Dylan style these days. In cinema also, I made the choice of small films. It is all because of age. King Lear is an important factor in my life, as important as my first film, first album, Badal Sircar and Mrinal Sen.

BENGALI THEATRE TODAY...

You cannot get another Utpal Dutt today who can write his own plays, do Shakespearean plays and translate them. You won’t get an Ajitesh Bandopadhyay doing Brechtian plays. They were translating themselves. They were doing great plays in Bangla. Why can’t theatre in Bengal do translations of great plays today? You don’t find people doing Sartre or Brecht. Why? In Istanbul, Paris everyone is doing classics. Which in my time, people were doing in Bengal.

I don’t know why there is also a lack of English language theatre. The Red Curtain used to exist, Rustom Bharucha used to exist, Shyamanand Jalan used to exist. So, why can’t Bangla theatre reach out to the upward-mobile audience who go to the cinema to watch English and Hindi films? Theatre has to be attractive to people listening to rock music. Music and OTT are catering to the Anglicised upward-mobile generation to some extent. There are Bengalis interested in Bryan Adams and Coldplay… why won’t they see a Bengali theatre? That audience who is watching world cinema in OTT, why won’t they see Bengali theatre? Because Bengali theatre has restricted itself.

It is so difficult for me to make my cast understand why I am using the music of Pink Floyd in my play. I always make an effort to make my actors understand why I am doing something. Why am I making the stage look like a nightclub in this play and why is the storm a bright scene and not a dark one? Because when the storm comes the eyes open up, so Lear sees clearly. People are not used to thinking like this. Initially, they thought the outfits would be like kings’ and queens’ but I wanted them to wear leotards so that their bodies looked naked, just covered up in a robe. They are actually people who have nothing, basically naked. They are covering themselves with a robe and pretending, when the robe moves then we can see their legs and hands.

Theatre should have been more interesting. Why can’t a small Bangla band be a part of theatre? I did so long back. The young generation is still listening to Rupam (Islam) and Cactus. Why can’t they slip into theatre? If you are listening to Anupam Roy at home, why can’t it be a part of theatre? Why does it have to be the old music? The actors are not encouraged to sing or dance. It is very sad.