Event Dates: 27 – 30 April 2016
Asia House
63 New Cavendish St,
London W1G 7LP
Indian Shakespeare on Screen
Indian Shakespeares on stage have garnered the increasing attention of academics both Western and Eastern, yet local and regional screen versions continue to be largely overlooked within the scope of Shakespeare on film. It has been a decade since the publication of India’s Shakespeare: Translation, Interpretation and Performance (2005), in which Poonam Trivedi observes that despite the seven hundred million speakers of different Indian languages worldwide, Shakespeare’s impact on the theatre and films in the languages has yet to be accorded the critical attention it merits.
In 2014, we hosted a one-day conference in London to discuss the relationship between Shakespeare and Hindi cinema/ Bollywood, the world’s largest cinema industry. In 2016, we seek to widen this discussion to include the relationship between Shakespeare and Indian cinema, bringing together researchers and filmmakers to establish the state of current scholarships in the vibrant, underexamined field. At the beautiful central London venue Asia House we are proud to welcome Vishal Bhardwaj and the scriptwriters of his Shakespeare Trilogy, leading academics in Shakespeare appropriation and Indian cinemas and Film London: Microwave India to present a sneak preview of an exciting new cinematic collaboration between the UK and India via Shakespeare. We also present, for the first time in the UK, a selection of cinematic memorabilia documenting Shakespeare on Indian screens from the National Film Archive of India.
A selection of the conference talks have been recorded:
27 April: Day 1 at Asia House
Opening remarks by Thea Buckley and Koel Chatterjee:
Plenary:
Setting the Scene
Roundtable: Poonam Trivedi, Diana Henderson and Deana Rankin:
Keynote Panel: The Bhardwaj Shakespeare Trilogy
Chaired by: Varsha Panjwani
Vishal Bhardwaj, Director of Maqbool, Omkara and Haider discusses his Indian Shakespeare trilogy with his scriptwriters Abbas Tyrewala (Maqbool) and Robin Bhatt (Omkara).:
28 April: Day 2 at Asia House
Plenary
Chaired by: Koel Chatterjee
Jonathan Gil Harris – Shakespearean Masala
Panel 5a:
Script Reading and Discussion: Have the Shakespeares on Screen Forsaken Shakespeare’s love of Science?
Chaired by: Thea Buckley
Carole Jahme, RSC fellow and winner of the 2012 Science and Technology Facilities Council Award for public engagement enacts scenes from The Merry Wives of Munnar and leads a panel on Science, Shakespeare and India
Panel 5b:
Talk: Introducing The Hungry – the new Titus Andronicus, set in contemporary Mumbai
Chaired by Preti Taneja, Q+A lead by Deborah Sathe, Film London Head of Talent Development & Production.
With Briony Hanson and Kurban Kassam
Microwave International: India from Film London on Vimeo.
29 April: Day 3 at Asia House
Plenary:
Chaired by: Preti Taneja
Mark Thornton Burnett – Gendered Play and Regional Dialogue in Nanjundi Kalyana
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SPECIAL SCREENINGS: BFI Southbank
Maqbool (133 mins) Introduced by Koel Chatterjee
Post Screening Q+A: Director Vishal Bhardwaj and Scriptwriter Abbas Tyrewala in conversation with Thea Buckley.
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Sat 30 April: Day 4 at the BFI
Omkara (150 mins) Introduced by Koel Chatterjee
Post Screening Q+A: Director Vishal Bhardwaj and Scriptwriter Robin Bhatt in conversation with Dr. Varsha Panjwani
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Haider (159 mins) Introduced by Koel Chatterjee
Pre Screening Q+A: Director Vishal Bhardwaj in conversation with Dr. Preti Taneja.
