Mughal-E-Azam Musical Analysis
Mughal-e-Azam: The Musical
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mughal-e-Azam is a musical based on the 1960 movie of the same name. It has been directed by Feroz Abbas Khan and produced jointly by Shapoorji Pallonji and the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA). The show created new benchmarks in theatre production in India and has taken it to an entirely new level gaining plenty of national and international recognition. It also happens to be India’s first grand-scale Broadway-style musical. The show has received rave reviews from the media, the entertainment industry, and the corporate world. In 2017, it won 7 out of the 14 Broadway World India Awards including Best Play, Best Director for Feroz Abbas Khan and Best Costume Design …show more content…
In the 100 shows of Mughal-e-Azam, lip-syncing to pre-recorded songs has been strictly avoided. With a budget of 1.5 crore, the original Mughal-e-Azam was the biggest grand-scale production of Indian cinema at the time, and recreating it required a similar amount of budgeting. Deepesh Salgia, director of the Shapoorji Pallonji group, did not think twice before shelling out massive finances. He was quoted saying, “When it comes to the classic, we don’t talk of budget.” With the creative genius of Khan and the massive financial backing of Shapoorji Pallonji, Mughal-e-Azam began to recruit a strong technical team on board. Striving to achieve Broadway-style lighting for the play, Drama Desk Award-winning light designer David Lander was brought in. John Narun was recruited to handle projection design, whose experience working on Madonna’s concerts and handling productions at the Radio City Mega Hall, New York would come in handy. Designer Neil Patel, a recipient of the Obie Award and Helen Hayes Award, took care of the production design for the show. Lander and Patel also won Broadway World India awards for their immaculate work in Mughal-e-Azam. The clothing had to be selected keeping the scale and authenticity of the project, hence, experienced Bollywood designer Manish Malhotra was roped in for designing the costumes. Renowned choreographer Mayuri Upadhya choreographed the play, recreating the dance sequences from the movie in a way that brought novelty yet retained the essence of the original. Expenditure on the shows was done lavishly as it turned out be the most expensive production that Indian theatre had ever seen with the cost of the costumes alone exceeding the budget of the rest of the
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mughal-e-Azam is a musical based on the 1960 movie of the same name. It has been directed by Feroz Abbas Khan and produced jointly by Shapoorji Pallonji and the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA). The show created new benchmarks in theatre production in India and has taken it to an entirely new level gaining plenty of national and international recognition. It also happens to be India’s first grand-scale Broadway-style musical. The show has received rave reviews from the media, the entertainment industry, and the corporate world. In 2017, it won 7 out of the 14 Broadway World India Awards including Best Play, Best Director for Feroz Abbas Khan and Best Costume Design …show more content…
In the 100 shows of Mughal-e-Azam, lip-syncing to pre-recorded songs has been strictly avoided. With a budget of 1.5 crore, the original Mughal-e-Azam was the biggest grand-scale production of Indian cinema at the time, and recreating it required a similar amount of budgeting. Deepesh Salgia, director of the Shapoorji Pallonji group, did not think twice before shelling out massive finances. He was quoted saying, “When it comes to the classic, we don’t talk of budget.” With the creative genius of Khan and the massive financial backing of Shapoorji Pallonji, Mughal-e-Azam began to recruit a strong technical team on board. Striving to achieve Broadway-style lighting for the play, Drama Desk Award-winning light designer David Lander was brought in. John Narun was recruited to handle projection design, whose experience working on Madonna’s concerts and handling productions at the Radio City Mega Hall, New York would come in handy. Designer Neil Patel, a recipient of the Obie Award and Helen Hayes Award, took care of the production design for the show. Lander and Patel also won Broadway World India awards for their immaculate work in Mughal-e-Azam. The clothing had to be selected keeping the scale and authenticity of the project, hence, experienced Bollywood designer Manish Malhotra was roped in for designing the costumes. Renowned choreographer Mayuri Upadhya choreographed the play, recreating the dance sequences from the movie in a way that brought novelty yet retained the essence of the original. Expenditure on the shows was done lavishly as it turned out be the most expensive production that Indian theatre had ever seen with the cost of the costumes alone exceeding the budget of the rest of the