It is no secret that Bombay has no space for theatre or art. Artists wait like well behaved pets for the crumbs to fall off the calendars of venues. If a space can be given to a conference or a wedding, why give it to theatre?
The topic of “date allocation” has often led to violent arguments, at least in the theatre community.
Dynamic duo, Sanjna Kapoor and Sameera Iyengar, have grown tired of being bound to a physical building (Prithvi) and decided venture out by creating Junoon — an initiative to make space for theatre in society. Their focus is on the newly-emerging urban townships; townships which have detailed plans for malls, parking and even cinemas, but none for the live arts. Their fear is that an entire generation of Indians will grow up in soulless cities.
The two-woman approach seems to be the artistic community’s strongest ally, particularly in Bombay. The Gupta sisters, Aanchal and Sonam have turned their family’s old factory into an active cultural centre in Sion. As per the new guidelines, the factory had to be relocated to the outskirts of the city. The sisters decided to give central and eastern Bombay access to workshops in dance, theatre and music. They began with a small studio, but now have expanded to four usable spaces, each catering to different needs. Unfortu-nately, Arts in Motion Studio, has not yet been fully utilised as a regular performance space, even though Taufiq Qureshi’s drum circles are extremely popular.
Another “culture hub” is Temperance — a lovely three-storey structure houses a lounge, a café, a dance studio and a Mixed Martial Arts studio. Started by two cousins, Hema Thakur and Viola Wadia, the Bandra venue has become very popular for short dance performances, demonstrations, and of course, that favourite of maximum city — Stand-up Comedy. Bandra is a congested residential suburb, so the emergence of a place where people can access the arts seems, in hindsight, to have been a real need.
Just like Temperance, which housed a gym previously, another fitness centre has been converted into an “arts” space. Avenue 29, started by Pia Shivdasani and Atmika Didwani replaced Micky Mehta’s popular gym with an open plan two thousand square foot space that can be configured for all kinds of ventures. They too chose Stand-up Comedy, as the performance style of choice to launch the venue, but since then it has housed painting exhibitions and book releases. Located in the south part of the city, Avenue 29 could become the much needed venue for small performances catering to a 50 to 80 member audience. In the online world too, women teams are dominating. bpbweekend.com, run by the elusive Mansi and Kanika, features all that is happening in the city’s culture-scape. Although started as a guide for a “ladies weekend”, it has grown to accommodate features on off-beat arts performances, and even plays. 2012 has become the year of cultural explosion. With women leading the pack, other entrepreneurs have also seen the need for artistic spaces. A new theatre is scheduled to open in Goregaon, and in Andheri a terrace space has been given to the artistic community to rehearse and perform; and plans are on for another small performance space in Bandra.