Show must go on

In the play Blame it on Yashraj , a character casually refers to a compilation of songs by Fever 104 FM. As subtlety is a virtue synonymous with theatre, such embedded commercials raise the hackles of theatre purists. But producer Ashvin Gidwani is unfazed. In fact, one of the first lessons his struggling years taught him was that pure theatre can’t give you a return on investments.

Gidwani is among the new-age theatre producers who believe that commercial success cannot come only through ticket sales. Even as theatre struggles to keep up with changing tastes in a rapidly evolving society, most playwrights and actors who dabble in theatre admit it is more a passion than a livelihood. But some believe there are ways to make it commercially viable.

Branded and blended

When Gidwani set up AGP in 1995, he managed a few successful productions before going bust. It took him a while to recover, but not before he resolved to develop a sustainable model. “No one has that pure passion for theatre anymore. If I am getting involved, I should get something out of it,” he says. His productions now offer in-theatre brand placements similar to the sought-after in-programme placements in TV and movies. In fact, even the brands happen to be the same. AGP has worked with Standard Chartered Bank, Vodafone and Mercedes-Benz, to name a few. The ticket price remains the same.

Apart from the regular ticketed shows, his company offers supper theatre for corporates (with concepts catering to the client’s needs) and HR-oriented events, among others. It has an annual revenue of ₹20-25 crore. Nearly 60 per cent of the shows are sponsored, but Gidwani insists he won’t compromise on the content. “I always talk to my director and writer before embarking on any brand integration. We call it ‘pipeline to lifeline’, so we plan backwards to check on various avenues of marketing the play and which brands fit well.”

So, if Central Bank is celebrating its centenary, it will choose to sponsor AGP’s History of India — VIRitten , while an event management company may choose Blame it on Yashraj.

Gidwani is not alone with this modus operandi. In Chennai, what started as a college thesis soon became a reality for the founders of Evam Entertainment. “For our thesis (at Ahmedabad’s Mudra Institute of Communications) on ‘Theatre as a successful revenue model’, we spoke to a lot of people and realised that there is no established revenue model in India. What we found out was quite discouraging,” says Karthik Kumar, one of the founding members.

Today, their 11-year-old theatre company is a rare commercial success that has even attracted venture capitalists. “In the first three years, we had concentrated on pure theatre and performances. Gradually we branched out with workshops for IT companies like Oracle and Infosys, and forayed into colleges and schools. We organise festivals involving performance arts. Our aim is to venture into different spheres where we can apply theatre,” says Kumar. Evam does live theatre shows, corporate shows and HR training modules.

“The old model of producing plays and hoping that an audience will come to watch just doesn’t work anymore. The idea is to adapt to any kind of space — whether it is a banquet hall, a street or a pub. Wherever there is an audience,” he explains. And they can certainly take a bow now that they have experienced a 30 per cent jump in profits from a year ago, with an annual turnover of ₹2 crore.

Evam has worked with brands like Google, GE, HUL, Ashok Leyland and others. The brand fit depends on the play, says Kumar.

Passes vs passion

Even traditional theatre has not been immune to these changes blowing in the playhouses. Theatre director M Sayeed Alam, who has steered Delhi-based Pierrot’s Troupe since the 1990s, did something unheard of in those days: eliminated the ‘free pass’ culture. “In India, there is a passion for theatre, but in Delhi you have passes for theatre,” he says, explaining that out of the 20 people watching his first play, only eight had bought tickets. For him, success doesn’t mean making a mark at festivals but having a full house for shows. “People don’t mind spending ₹2,000 for dinner but they don’t want to buy tickets. I never invite anybody. If someone from our group does, he or she pays for the ticket. In the 17 years of my career, I’ve never performed at India International Centre, which would’ve surely earned me a good name as it draws the who’s who of Delhi. But that would mean performing for free.” His Ghalib in New Delhi remains the longest-running show (since 1997) in India.

A sponsored show, on the other hand, is a profitable proposition for him. “If I do a regular show which is houseful, I get around ₹1.1 lakh, but I have already invested ₹40,000-50,000 for the show (booking the hall, make-up and so on). There is hardly any profit in that. But if we do a ₹3 lakh sponsored show, the margin is obviously higher,” he says. In a month, his company does an equal number of sponsored and ticketed shows to break even. “If you completely stop doing regular shows, you won’t get the sponsored ones either,” he adds.

Different takes

Apart from the usual logos and standees, theatre groups see the future in creating brand awareness and engagement.

While ads are definitely cheaper in theatre than on TV, the reach is smaller. But then, theatre is a niche space and the crowd is mostly affluent and powerful. What theatre can’t achieve with numbers, it can by reaching the right kind of audience. For instance, when travel company Kuoni India sponsored Gidwani’s TheAlchemist , it gained access to leading corporates of Mumbai and Delhi who were invited. “It was attended by over 80 corporates and helped us reach out to key decision-makers,” says Kashmira Commissariat, chief operating officer of Kuoni India’s outbound division.

The online medium, again, promises a targeted return on investment, by reaching people of a certain desired profile.

“With the help of social media, we are able to reach out to a huge number of people, which wasn’t possible earlier,” says Gidwani, who sees social networking also as a great way to connect with the younger generation. Kumar agrees: “We are driven by young energies in terms of the people who are watching the shows and creating the content, and therein lies the future.”

( Sayoni Sinha is a Mumbai-based writer)

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