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India, China add drama to ties, Raj Kapoor’s Awaara to get new twist on stage
BEIJING: Many Indians in China have had the Chinese version of the theme song of Raj Kapoor’s 1951 movie Awaara sung to them by nostalgic taxi drivers.
BEIJING: Many Indians in China have had the Chinese version of the theme song of Raj Kapoor’s 1951 movie Awaara sung to them by nostalgic taxi drivers.
For those greying taxi drivers, it might soon be time to relive the nostalgia: The governments of the two countries agreed to make a theatrical adaptation of Awaara and stage it in China by the end of next year.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), India’s apex government body on culture, and the China Shanghai International Arts Festival (CSIAF) in Shanghai to expand ties in the field.
“It may be noted as part of the MoU both sides will also attempt a joint theatrical re-production of the popular Indian movie Awaara which would be set in contemporary times and re-enacted as a theatrical version for viewing by contemporary audiences worldwide,” a statement from the Indian consulate in Shanghai said.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 18th CSIAF, Amarendra Khatua, ICCR director general emphasised the need to have cultural exchanges in tier-II and tier-III cities in India and China respectively.
While ICCR would commission an Indian company to propose the script for the play in a contemporary set-up, CSIAF would charge a Chinese production unit to design and enact the musical for production.
Indian and Chinese actors will be selected for the parts. The expenditure will be borne equally by the two organisations.
Once the production is ready, performances would be organised both in India and China.
Awaara was among seven Indian movies to be released in China between 1955 and 1961. It was re-released in the late 1970s after the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976.
But the target audience for “Awaara 2.0” will be the post-90s generation in China besides their equally tech-savvy contemporaries in neighbouring India.
Neither generation know too much about the movie, which took India’s soft-power on celluloid across borders and brought tears and smiles to the faces of millions in inscrutable Communist countries like the former Soviet Union and China.
The movie remains a rare aspect of Sino-India relations that usually brings a song to the lips instead of a snigger.
