Punekars to witness a wedding for Mr and Mr

In June 2014, the Indian audience witnessed a gay marriage on stage for the first time courtesy of his Marathi play Dushyantpriya, claims Marathi playwright and director Sarang Bhakre. “It was a foreign concept, nobody could think of marriage and homosexuality in one frame,” says Bhakre.

After almost nine shows, the play had to be discontinued due to lack of funds. However, now eight years later, actor Raj Hanchanale and Bhakre are coming back on stage to revive the love story.

“Back then, there were no references. There was no Shubh Mangal Zyaada Savdhaan (2020) or Badhaai Do,” says Hanchanale, who is the only actor retained from the original play. The actor admits that when he was offered the part, he was “scared”. “After reading the script, main bhag gaya waha se. It was new for me as well. I didn’t get back to them for at least four days, as I was scared I’d get typecast. It was my first project in a lead role. But then the script stayed on my mind,” Hanchanale adds.

Dushyantpriya is a play within a play that has two parallel storylines — one with the love story between the two protagonists and the second about a theatre group putting up the popular play Abhigyan Shakuntalam — the play has had a massive impact on Bhakre’s story.

“It was primarily a love story when I had started writing it, the gay marriage part was added at the end. The idea was to engross the audience for the end credits after the story ends. But then we thought why would the audience wait and watch? So, we added a song and had a traditional Marathi wedding for the guys,” Bhakre recalls.

The troop has already done three shows in Mumbai and has a show lined up on Thursday in Pune. “The acceptance level has increased,” says Hanchanale, when asked about the difference between the audience’s response eight years ago and today. He adds, “Except for one journalist, no other media personnel came to watch the play, despite us calling them back then. They were scared as well. Yet eight years ago, we received an amazing response. I still remember a few people from the community crying as they related to the story so well.”

Pune’s audience is known to be extremely critical, especially when it comes to plays. However, Bakhre is confident of his product. “There are multiple Marathi plays on the LGBTQI+ community but they all end up in misery. Ours is a celebration. Also, the entire play has been written with homosexuals being a core part of it and that makes a huge difference,” he signs off.