“Trivialisation of art is more worrisome than its commercialization.”
An innovative streak and a novel approach mark Salim Arif’s creations – be it his directional adventures in theatre or his costume designing in films like Maachis and Sardar and TV serials like Chanakya, Mirza Ghalib and Bharat Ek Khoj. His blending of traditional with the contemporary reflects in his body of work — which is not only diverse but covers a wide spectrum of audience as well. In a freewheeling interview with Tuhina Banerjee, he talks about his chequered journey, his convictions about art and artists and how he envisions the future.
It has been a long, chequered journey for you. How did you embark on it and what were the initial challenges ?
I have grown up literally under the shadow of a cinema hall that was originally designed as a theatre, in Chaulakhi area of Lucknow. My initial interest came from the large hoarding and banner painters who would bring alive hand-painted larger-than-life images and cut outs of stars. I would copy the graph method of enlargements at home creating my own compositions. My family, hailing from Ghatampur in UP, has an aristocratic lineage. Arts were more of a hobby than something that needed to be a full time occupation. My grandfather was a patron of light classical music, poetry and would be part of the mehfils and baithaks in pre-independence days. My father trained to be a civil engineer and worked in a government department. My eldest brother is an engineer while the other is a doctor. You can imagine the pressure I have gone through in my teens, to be a civil servant as my family aspired.
In college, I was asked by a friend to design the poster for the play King Oedipus that got me in touch with theatre and was later pushed to act by them besides designing lights and sets. I was fortunate to meet some stalwart artistes from the city in that period who became my informal mentors. Krishna Narain Kacker, Raj Bisaria, Kunwar Narain ji , Ranveer Sing Bisht and Surya Mohan Kulshreshtha encouraged me to pursue Art as a career. Bansi Kaul was doing Ala Afsar, in Lucknow. It was a very good production using nautanki style of presentation that was an inspiration. Then the plays of Habib Tanvir and NSD repertory company came to Lucknow. It completely changed my vision of theatre and I realised that this is what I should be doing. I then joined the Bhartendu Natya Akademi. Here Raj Bisaria, Hemedra Bhatia and Anupam Kher taught me the nuances of theatre. Then I got selected in NSD with a scholarship and that changed my life.
How have you evolved as an artist over the years?
NSD provided theatre training with a multi-disciplinary broad-based vision, with each student shaping almost like a pyramid peaking to a pinnacle in his or her respective area of specialisation; yet capable of having the ability to work in other areas with distinction. We could also get exposed to various national and international plays and performers on a regular basis and interact with artists who were celebrity names for us. The surrounding auditoriums like Sri Ram Centre, Kamani, FICCI and the art galleries like Lalit Kala Akademi, Triveni Kala Sangam and Art Heritage made it all the more exciting.
Film screenings at Max Mueller Bhavan, Russian Cultural Centre, American Centre and Pragati Maidan were the other outings one loved to have. No wonder all of us cherish the time we spent at the NSD. It gave us the confidence to be on the national stage and empowered us to work anywhere in any condition.
You have donned so many roles — director, designer etc. Which is the role that you most enjoy?
I have always tried to explore newer terrains in my career. It all depends on the challenges a project offers. I have been fortunate to get assignments that have been very substantial and meaty. I enjoy working with new directors, new content and fresh ideas. I have a comprehensive and unified approach to Design and Direction. Even when I have designed for other directors, I have always kept the vision of that director in mind. Be it Rajiv Sethi in Apna Utsav of 1986 in Delhi where I designed sets and lights for 22 monuments like Puran Qila, Jamali Kamali Tomb etc., or designed lights for KN Pannikker and Ratan Thiyam shows, there has been an effort to enhance what they had visualised as an experience. In films and TV projects like Shyam Benegal’s Bharat Ek Khoj, Gulzar Saab’s Mirza Ghalib, Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi’s Chanakya, and Neerja Guleri’s Chandrakanta, Ketan Mehta’s Sardar Patel, Gulzar Saab’s Maachis, all have been in sync with the style and treatment of those directors. But doing my own project as Director Designer is most fullfilling because I am in complete control of the presentation. I have directed several TV shows and left that medium once the interference from channels and programmers became stifling.
You are known for bringing innovation into whatever you do — be it in theatre or films, direction or designing. Does it come naturally to you?
I think it comes from trying to find an unusual or fresh perspective to a proposition that is established in terms of form and presentation. It gets further empowered when you have enlightened directors like Mr Shyam Benegal or Gulzar Saab appreciating a fresh take on visual elements. The use of white colour in costumes with soft earthen colours gave Bharat Ek Khoj and Mirza Ghalib its distinct look as compared to Mahabharat and Bahadur Shah Zafar serials. On stage in Ismat Apa Ke Naam, Naseer (Naseeruddin Shah) Bhai liked the idea of a sketched backdrop of a Haveli and the costumes did the rest. There is also a tendency to explore newer ways and idioms in presenting content that is unusual. The form is subservient to content and one needs to find elements that can lend to innovation. I must also admit that I get restive if I continue doing something for long; it makes me feel stifled, that’s why I go to various institutions like NSD, BNA, MPSD, FTII, Whistling Woods, NIFT regularly and do workshops on design, classes on direction, productions of plays with students that keeps me in sync with changing times and rejuvenates me.
You are also a master of blending the traditional with the contemporary. How do you achieve this fusion?
It is my fellowship of NSD and work on interaction between traditional and modern Indian theatre with Habib Tanvir, KN Pannikker, Ratan Thiyam, BV Karanth that has been of great help. It is important to find a sense of continuity and organic connect between living traditions and contemporary trends to create any thing that can be called modern. I have been fortunate to work with maestros not only in theatre but films and television. Each of these mediums have enhanced my understanding of the other medium and components; I draw from all three in my work on stage or screen.
Your list of achievements is endless. Which is the assignment you think you did the best? And the one you thought lacked the impact you wanted it to give?
Salim Arif: Fortunately, I have done very selective work that by now is acknowledged worthy as referential or authentic. My costume design work in Bharat Ek Khoj, Chanakya, Mirza Ghalib is now considered the most defining work of those periods. I was directing telefilms that were well received and my serials had good runs. It was around 2000 that I felt my content was being controlled by programmers and channels. I was losing control as director of saying what I wanted to say, I left that field and got full time into theatre that gave me creative freedom of expression on issues that I felt were important. I also started sharing my experience with students of various disciplines in reputed national institutes and I am pretty happy to now go to the US and take up the responsibility as the Resident Director for Theatre and Arts in The Matrix Club, Naperville IL.
I now do feel the projects I got were beyond my age and experience, but they prepared me for my later work. There are no regrets.
Is it always possible that art can be for art’s sake at a time when commercialisation is ruling the roost and true artists are gasping for breath?
Art for art’s sake would mean you are conforming to the existing status-quo and creating art that at best can be decorative. You cannot isolate yourself from your surroundings and create art that would be relevant or exciting. At the same time for art to be effective or meaningful as an instrument of sensitisation or change, it will have to fulfill the aesthetic criteria of good art or that stream before it can be termed as socially relevant.
Commerce is an important aspect of our lives and we need to learn to live with it as artists. More than commercialisation, it is the trivialisation of issues and art that is more worrisome. The dumping down of education and arts by market forces need to be countered by more vigorous and forceful artistic efforts and deeper enquiry into our everyday reality.
How do you think Indian theatre has changed, say from 1970s-80s to now?
It has changed drastically. Sets and lights have acquired an insignificant role, we are happy to find excuses to present lethargic, verbal theatre. There is no concern to build an economic base of self-sufficient theatre. We are happy to perform in a 50-seat auditorium and present plays of uneven aesthetic quality. Theatre in Mumbai is now most vibrant as major artists have found professional work there in films and TV. The city also has benefit of major talent from Marathi, Gujarati, Hindi and English theatre coming together on platforms and finding inspiration from each other. The Inter Collegiate competitions are a constant source of new content and performers that forms a vital talent pool. Now, we have some very capable writers, actors and directors creating new content for an audience that patronises them. What we lack are new performing spaces that can make theatre a commercially viable proposition.
We are still working with auditoriums made in 70s in obsolete infrastructure. Just to inform you, the last scheme to built new theatres was way back in 1964 in the Tagore Centenary year. We have some of the worst multi-purpose auditoriums in the world. Theatre, sadly, is not on the radar of our planners and leaders.
Your interests are diverse – from Ghalib and Manto to O Henry and Shakespeare. It reflects on your body of work. How does it help you in your craft?
It is a wide repertoire of content to select from, and all of them are great writers. Each of these masters and even contemporary writers like Gulzar Saab, Pavan Varma and Javed Siddiqi have their distinct ways of treating words with care and concern. They are all very different from each other, and demand different treatment. The world they create with their vocabulary has a strong cultural base that gives it a very strong literary value. This base of good literature is at the root of my work and I draw inspiration from their writings to create a diverse and eclectic body of plays that have always been received well by audiences around the world.
What are the key projects you are working on currently?
I just finished a play Comedy Of Errors with Sri Ram Centre Repertory Company in Delhi. My new project is a play Chaabi written by Javed Siddiqi on a story by Gulzar besides workshops in the US.
If you were asked to give three important tips to budding artists, what would they be?
You have chosen the life of an artist who will be looking for opportunities to express yourself, it is a struggle creatively and socially and would remain so till the end of your life. Don’t expect charity or short cuts. Prepare yourself well so that when the big opportunity comes, you can make the most of it. You will get what you deserve, success may take a longer time to come than what you expect, but it will happen. Be yourself.
The writer is a freelancer who specialises in lifestyle and wellness issues