Marathi theatre sees male actors play female roles

Male Marathi actors have never shied away from playing female roles on stage and keeping this tradition alive there are quite a few actors of recent times who are transforming into the fairer sex for plays.
Quite interestingly, most of these roles are repeat performances of iconic roles that have earlier been essayed by actors such as Bal Gandharva, Dilip Prabhavalkar, Vijay Chavan, Subodh Bhave, Prashant Damle etc in the past.The men leave no stone unturned to get the right feel to essay their roles on stage. While some prefer to deck up authentically others choose to grasp womanly traits and mannerisms to get that feminine feel. We bring a few such examples:
Actor: Prasad Oak
Play: 'Nandi'
Character: Rukmini, a singer who performs in a royal court
“Subodh Bhave, who essayed this role earlier, left a mark with his portrayal of Rukmini. So I decided to create my own style for the part,” said Prasad. To lend authenticity to his character, Prasad prefers to drape the nine yard sari instead of opting for a ready-to-wear one along with heavy jewellery that includes a kamarbandh.
Actor:Bharat Jadhav
Play: 'Moruchi Maushi'
Character: The protagonist Moru’s aunt
“I have been a fan of this play since childhood and feel lucky to play this character. I also am doing this play to be able to take this amusing script to a wider audience,” said Bharat. The role was earlier portrayed by Vijay Chavan. Speaking about it, Bharat said, “There can be no comparison between me and Vijay kaka as he was a stalwart.”
Actor: Pushkar Shrotri
Play: 'Hasva Phasvi'
Character: Poorvi Shrotri Patel
Lumumba, protagonist Pushkar’s twin sister
“I took up this play as I wanted to challenge myself as an actor. I also took advice from Dilipji (Dilip Prabhavalkar) who has originally essayed the character,” said Pushkar who is portraying as many as six characters in the play. Few of these characters include a Chinese man, and TV character Chimanrao.
Actor: Pranav Raorane
Play: 'Vasuchi Sasu'
Character: Sasu, the protagonist Vasu’s mother-in-law Pranav said, “Initially I was hesitant to play the character as I needed to trim my eyebrows and wax my hands for it. It was director Mangesh Kadam who convinced me for it and I am immensely thankful to him as this character has given me the most popularity in my career so far. The experience has been a great one.”
Actor: Vikrant Ajgaonkar
Play: 'Sangeet Saubhadra'
Character: Subhadra
“Bal Gandharva who originally played Subhadra’s part would not change his voice while singing his lines as his mermerising voice kept the audiences captivated. But I had to alter my voice to fit in and make it more acceptable,” said Vikrant. Elaborating on how he learned to emulate women he said, “I took tips from my wife on how to act shy.