Arts & Entertainment
– that’s all you need to know
By Shilpa Jamkhandikar
eauty and the Beast”
will return to India this
summer. The
Broadway musical
opened to sold-out
shows in Mumbai and New
Delhi last year, featuring an all-
Indian cast and costing as much
to produce as the average
Bollywood movie.
With live musicals charming
urban audiences and tickets
ranging from 1,500 rupees ($22)
to 7,500 rupees ($112), Disney is
hoping to bring more such
shows to India.
Disney India chief Siddharth
Roy Kapur spoke to Reuters
about the musical and plans for
more live events in the country.
What did the first season of
“Beauty and the Beast” in India
teach you?
The first season was spectac-
ular because we were complete-
ly sold out in both cities. Any
trepidation we might have had
about how the shows would go
was completely washed away. It
did give us the impetus to
decide to do a second season in
both cities and also look at live
entertainment as a sustainable
business model in India.
Any changes in the second sea-
son?
In terms of audience num-
bers, we did 10 shows in
Mumbai and 10 in Delhi. In
Mumbai, the audience capacity
was 2,300 people per show, and
in Delhi it was 1,600 per show…
In the second season, the capac-
ity is the same, but we plan to
do more shows. A lot of people
who couldn’t watch it the first
time around will come back.
What are your long-term plans
for live events in India?
It is really about bringing
world-class content to India.
The good part is we have a
treasure trove of shows from the
Disney theatrical group in the
United States, from “The Lion
King” to “Aladdin” and “Mary
Poppins”, “Ida” and “The Jungle
Book”, that we have done on
Broadway and theWest End,
and then travelled the world
with them. To bring these shows
to India every few months or so,
is what we are looking at; and
also to encourage local talent.
What are the obstacles in the
way to make this a lasting busi-
ness in India?
Over time, the most impor-
tant thing to make this business
model sustainable is to ensure
there are more venues. Mumbai
and Delhi are just two centers,
but there are cities like
Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad
[and] Ahmedabad which are
ripe for this sort of entertain-
ment.
Audiences there are also
clamoring for different experi-
ences, but the venues at these
places make it impossible for us
to take a show of the scale of
“Beauty and the Beast” there.
Hopefully, we’ll find a way out,
and in a couple of months, have
some ideas that we can work
towards implementing.
Is it more to do with the size of
the venues than the actual infra-
structure?
That’s exactly the problem.
The other cities don’t have a sta-
dium the size of the NSCI
(Mumbai) or a Thyagaraj
(Delhi), where one can think of
putting up a show. Aside from
that, they also need the capacity
to withstand the scale of this
production because we have a
lot of heavy equipment that has
to be suspended from the ceil-
ing. There is a certain depth to
staging area and a certain height
you require.
When will the next production
come to India?
Sometime next year, when
the next production will be
launched, with a local cast and
crew.
What was the budget for
“Beauty and the Beast” and has
this been a profitable venture for
Disney India?
This is as much as a medium-
budget Hindi film, which I don’t
think anyone else has done. I
wouldn’t like to get into finan-
cials, but at the end of season
two, we will be in a situation
where we will be on the plus
side.
– Reuters
B
Siddharth Roy Kapur On ‘Beauty And The Beast’
27
News India Times
April 8, 2016
