“Describing me as a woman director is like putting me in a bracket, but then again the freedom given to women in theatre as well as in society is not complete,” says Usha Ganguly, one of India’s leading theatre personalities and founder of the theatre company Rangakarmee.
In the city to perform her play, Rudali, Ganguly says that during her theatre career spanning more than three decades, she has strived for social change through her plays.
“When a woman directs a play, she brings in a different sense of aesthetics and sensibility. As directors, women tend to be more experimental and radical with the way they present and adapt plays,” she says.
While there are many more women in the theatre scene than there were 20 years back, Ganguly feels that women are still insecure in male-dominated theatre groups.
“Women, especially young girls in theatre groups are exploited in many ways. When parents know that there is a woman at the helm of a production, they feel more secure. It is not the financial security that is more important to them but the safety,” she adds.
Moving on to the current theatre scene in Hyderabad, Ganguly fondly recounts the last time she had performed Rudali in Hyderabad.
“I had performed Rudali here 15 years back. The response was amazing. There is a hunger in people from Hyderabad to know more about theatre. The audience is very different, and it is the curiosity about plays that unites them and makes them such a wonderful audience to perform for,” she says.
On the growing interest towards theatre in the city she says, “It is very important to have plays over the weekends or week days regularly. In theatre the more you do productions, the more adept you become.”
