Inside Out

Twenty years ago, Fali Unwalla discovered that he loved the stage immensely, also that he suffered from stage fright. After acting in one of Pearl Padamsee8217;s plays, he gave up acting never to return to stage. But acting was replaced by a passion, which he continues to nurture and live with. Set designing. Unwalla8217;s set for Rahul daCunha8217;s Jesus Christ Superstar has perhaps received more appreciation than the play itself. How rewarding is it?
Yet, just after Jesus Christ Superstar opened to packed houses, Unwalla admitted the look had fallen short of the scale he had envisioned.
It8217;s the same old constraint 8212; poor budget, which theatre perennially has a dearth of, but which one does not expect from a production where ads are aired in the interval. quot;Not that I am unhappy with the way it turned out, but I wanted to use all the devices like the revolve, the Iron Gate, the background in a much larger scale. I had drawn up a different scale for the play, which was just beyond the available means imagine a much larger revolve with one of the main characters on it and the dancers moving in the other direction, or Jesus8217; shelter with Mary against the backdrop of a dark blue, moonlit sky, or just much taller iron grills. Besides, we didn8217;t have enough time to toy with ideas. The set was constructed in flat 10 days, so you see8230;

We see. And we also see pretty innovative constructs within the limited means. Talk about innovative sets, a slice of modern urban theatre depends on minimalistic sets 8212; perhaps just a black background or nothing at all. Is that some kind of threat for the set designer?
Minimalictic or ostentatious, a lot of thinking goes into constructing a set. Why would somebody have a black background for a set? There will be a reason behind it and that8217;s exactly the job of the set designer 8212; to create the ambience for the situations the characters of the play are in. Sets are an extension of the mood of the play. Can you imagine a detailed, lavish set for I8217;m Not Bajirao? I had visualised it as white initially, but after a close reading, I realised I was on the wrong track and then the brown fibre glass tree and the dry brown leaves on the floor worked wonderfully.quot; It happens to be one of Unwalla8217;s favourites among his other works, which include Rahul daCunha8217;s Love Letters, Six Degrees Of Separation, Vikram Kapadia8217;s Musk Maiden, Kunal Vijaykar8217;s plays and a host of others. He has also designed sets for Shiamak Davar8217;s dance revues and for a couple of beauty pageants.

And all this without about getting into set direction full-time like any other actor or director of the English stage. Unwalla8217;s profession is, well, architecture.

Which he finds rather monotonous. quot;It8217;s the same kind of work over and over again. After a point, there8217;s very little scope for creativity.quot; In fact, Unwalla is looking for a scholarship to study art direction. quot;Nobody can teach you design. Either it8217;s in you or not in you. But there8217;s a lot one can learn as far as technical details are concerned.quot;

And then come back to meagre budgets?
quot;I want to branch out to art direction in films and television. An art director certainly has more control over the look of a film than a set designer does. But I will never dissociate myself from theatre. It8217;s my first love.quot;

Even though that means being virtually untouched by limelight every time?
quot;Yes, I take that as a great advantage.quot;

8211;SANJUKTA SHARMA