Lillete Dubey, who has been one of the most prolific actresses in today’s time, is here with her new teleplay ‘Adhe Adhure’. It discusses issues of a modern-day woman. Talking to Prateek Sur, the veteran actress speaks up about the teleplay's storyline, how different a teleplay is from a theatre play, and the issues of women in today’s time. Excerpts:
To begin with, tell us a bit about ‘Adhe Adhure’. What is the character that you're playing and how did the role come to you?
I have not just acted in it, but I have also produced and directed the play. This play, I saw, when I was in my first or second year of college, and I was massively impacted by the same. I was blown away by the play when I saw it at NSD. It was then only that I had promised myself, that if someday I have a production company of mine, this play has to be there in it. It was always on the list and this was the exact role, which I always wanted to play. I have worked in Hindi all through the 1990s and the better part of the last two decades. But I had never done a Hindi play. This was a challenging role, and I wanted to show myself and people that I can pull off such a character in Hindi as well. The story is from the 1960s, and we are now in 2023, and it’s still a very relevant story. It’s about a modern-day woman, who has her own struggles, dilemmas and challenges. It’s a complex character. It’s funny as well and written brilliantly. It’s emotional, dramatic and very very powerful as well. I thoroughly enjoyed playing the part of an actor. This was one of the roles for which I felt that I had to work on it a bit, and that was the challenging part of it.
This teleplay has been inspired by a theatre play that you had done. What sort of changes do you have to make for a teleplay when you're converting a theatre play to a teleplay?
It’s actually very tricky to make a play for the screen. But Zee Theatre was very clear that they wanted to keep it as if you’re watching a play only. We didn’t try at all to make it cinematic. It’s obviously not like the experience of watching it on stage, but still, you’re watching a play, and that’s what I like about Zee Theatre. It was very interesting to shoot. You’ve to shoot it in a way that you feel that you’re still watching a play. So, we tried to be as true to the play version as we could. As the camera was there, so we did take a few liberties. Like, we could zoom in on the actor’s faces to get into the depth of the emotions, etc. We tried to make it more up close so that the audience can watch it very intimately. The rest of everything is the same.
The play talks about a modern-day woman with modern-day issues. What are the issues that you’re bringing to light?
The character in the play is a very unhappy woman. She will never be satisfied because she wants so much from life. It’s not just that people will empathise with that character, but they would also end up criticising the character. Her husband does nothing. And if you see, it’s not a problem of the 1960s. It’s happening even today in many portions of the lower classes. The husbands are drunkards and live off the money earned by the wife, who is trying to make a living and even raise the kids, etc. So, in those respect, this woman is very dissatisfied with life. She also years for a little bit of romance and companionship. The basic issue that the character is facing is that women have to take on everything. She is the breadwinner and has a husband who doesn’t do anything, and therefore she is very frustrated.
The play ‘Adhe Adhure’ can be streamed on Zee Theatre.
