A discussion on Urdu theatre and its influence on Bollywood held in Lucknow

Held at a prominent club in the city recently, this literary event titled Samvad was attended by the literati. The event revolved around the topic titled Indra Sabha, the court of Indra and the rebirth of the 19th century

Urdu

theatre. The discussion, which was carried on by

Afroz Taj

and

John Caldwell

, professors of the University of North Carolina, was Urdu theatre-centric. It dealt with how the Urdu theatre started, who were the torch bearers, how it influences the present theatre scene and in what ways it has affected the

Bollywood

industry.

(L) Chandra Shekhar Varma (R) Faiza Mumtaz (BCCL/ Aditya Yadav)
Present at the event was

Prof Mahrukh Mirza

,

VC of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti Urdu

, Arabi-Farsi University with his wife Kaneez Fatima who were the guests of honour. The panel discussion which was moderated by CS Varma seemed to illuminate students who also attended the event. "This was so enlightening. I mean professors from a foreign university talking about the theatre of the 19th century," said Akash Yadav, a student.

(L) Jyoti Sinha (R) Mahrukh Mirza (BCCL/ Aditya Yadav)
A small session of audience interaction was also held where several people cleared their doubts with the panellists about the origin of Urdu theatre.
— Saad Abbasi

(L) Manju Anand (R) Nootan Tuli (BCCL/ Aditya Yadav)

(L) Ravi and Geetanjali Joshi (R) Vijay Sahi (BCCL/ Aditya Yadav)

(L) Tanu Tandon (R) Vineeta Mishra (BCCL/ Aditya Yadav)