When Chaitanya Varad quit his cushy corporate job and started the theatre group Underdog Entertainment, his idea was to come up with new plays and to encourage more people to join theatre. “People from our generation generally identify theatre as a ‘boring’ activity, so we started writing plays which one could connect with,” says Chaitanya.
The group staged its 15th original play What’s Up With Indian Parents, to a full house at Lamakaan. The play is a satirical take on how parents try to control all aspects of their son’s life. It is part of the group’s ‘What’s up’ series. According to Chaitanya, “The first play What’s Up With Indian Men was a huge success and the audience wanted us to come up with more such plays. This motivated us to write on Hyderabadi women, and then this.”
Like all their plays, this one too started with a monologue followed by funny scenes, interspersed with more monologues; with the characters directly interacting with the audience.
Neha Dhar, an IT professional, who acted with the team, says, “Sometimes during the play, if we feel that a particular situation isn’t funny enough, we improvise on stage to make it better.”
