Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Aage Badho India promotes Marathi theatrical talents in Navi Mumbai' that was published in Newsband

Aage Badho India promotes Marathi theatrical talents in Navi Mumbai

By Dinesh Kamath

NERUL: Many Navi Mumbaikars simply love to watch plays every now and then. But the problem is the price of the tickets. Nerul-based Santosh Waje’s Aage Badho India (ABI) has solved their problem. Waje is the creative head of the group. This organization offers tickets at discounted rates and tries to inculcate in the minds of children the beauty of theatres.

It was in June 2012 that Santosh along with Swati Patil, Pallavi Desai, Pratibha Salian, Kiran Shellar and Shailendra Patil formed ABI especially for the benefit of lovers of Marathi theatre.

These founders of ABI were aware of the fact that producers feared to stage plays in Navi Mumbai for the fear that they might not get good response. They thought that lovers of Marathi plays in Navi Mumbai might not be able to pay about Rs 200 or more for a ticket since this city is full of middle-class Marathi families. Hence what they did was they provided heavy discounts on tickets through their website and thus let them watch the play with their family. All these plays are organized at Vishnudas Bhave Auditorium.

Wah Guru, produced by Suyog, was the first play that ABI staged in Navi Mumbai. ABI stage plays on the week-end by delivering tickets at the doorstep. This way they are attempting to promoting theatre and prevent it from fading with time. Waje and his team put in extremely hard work to keep the theatre alive especially in Navi Mumbai. They display the trailers of upcoming as well as popular Marathi plays on their website so that people can make up their minds whether they would like to watch the play or not. Such a method is being tried for the first time.

Waje also trains children who are interested in theatres. He conducts acting workshops in which he uses his vast knowledge that he possesses about child development. He dwells on all the aspects of theatre like acting and directing skills, voice modulation, tackling stage fear etc. These workshops are conducted at Vishnudas Bhave Auditorium. There were 17 children plays staged all over Mumbai and these plays received massive response from the public. The shows had to be repeated to make it possible for huge number of theatre lovers to watch the plays.

In a matter of one year, Aage Badho India has been able to get 2500 theatre-loving families from Navi Mumbai to be its members. ABI has staged 48 plays in just one year. ABI also encourages budding theatre groups, actors and directors and teaches them to set up shows and display their theatrical skills in Navi Mumbai itself. Now it is spreading its wings to Thane too.