Suchitra Krishnamoorthi can't talk enough about her semi-autobiographical play, Drama Queen, and other engagements
Best known as Anna in the film, Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa, Suchitra Krishnamoorthi returned to the arc lights late last year with her play, Drama Queen, a fictional memoir of the same title published in 2013. Part truth and part fiction, the play dwells on her life after her divorce with filmmaker Shekhar Kapur in 2007 – albeit with much humour, exaggeration and dollops of glamour.
"Everyone tends to think that it is true, but a lot of it is fictionalised. In fact, the truth is also dramatised," says Krishnamoorthi, who will be opening the Old World Theatre Festival with Drama Queen. Admitting that she initally had doubts about certain parts of the book/play, but they were allayed after her family and friends read the draft and took it sportingly. "There are characters who are real people who have let me use their real names and describe real incidents that have happened with them. None of them asked me to make any alteration; if they had, I probably would have left out the passages, but they have all been very supportive," says 41-year-old Krishnamoorthi who marked her theatrical debut with the solo act.
If she had any remaining fears, they disappeared after the first show was received warmly. "Although I have written about the phase post a divorce, it is tongue-in-cheek and not like a serious melodrama. The audience sees the humour and finds it relatable. Many women have told me that they identify with the story or that they can imagine their mother reacting similarly. My friends, parents and daughter have all liked it. In fact, my mother is a central character in the play and was laughing out loud!"
Krishnamoorthi says she had been toying with the idea of doing theatre for a while. "I was exploring various subjects and reading scripts, but wasn't being able to fix on anything. It was my producer Ashvin Gidwani who suggested that I adapt my book as a play and it worked very well."
Although Krishnamoorthi has worked in several films besides being a professional singer and painter, she finds theatre very challenging. "While performing in front of a live audience, you are putting yourself out there... making yourself vulnerable. But that's also the high of a performance. Every time someone laughs, gasps or gets emotional, I love it!" Recalling the first performance, she says, "It opened in Mumbai and I was extremely nervous. I felt if I could pull this off, I can do anything."
The actress has also been in the news for her tweets about the azaan (the morning call for prayer from the mosque). Krishnamoorthi says that controversy is over and the azaan now plays at the legal decibel level. "I spoke to the authorities at the mosque and they were very cooperative," she says.
On the work front, the actress has finished a web-series that will release in a few months. Television, however, might not be on cards anytime soon. "TV continues to be very regressive. The female characters are put in a box and they are scared of moving beyond that," she adds.
What about turning the book, now a play, into a movie? Krishnamoorthi says she would be happy if it's an autobiography with the truth and nothing but the truth. "That would be too scandalous."
– Heena Khandelwal
The play will be staged at the Indian Habitat Centre on October 6 at 5pm and 7.30 pm
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