8 Ghante Montage 3

Meet the Cast & Crew...

Director

Harish Sunderam Agastya has been with Naatak since its founding in 1995. Over the last 15 years since its inception, Harish has worn multiple hats with Naatak as actor, director, producer and lighting designer. He directed Naatak's first foray into English plays in 2003 with Where There's A Will, a comedy by Mahesh Dattani. In 2007, he adapted, directed and played the lead in Anthony Shaffer's legendary thriller Sleuth. In 2008, he directed Mahesh Dattani's Final Solutions, a critically acclaimed play on Hindu-Muslim riots. Bay Area audiences have recently seen Harish on stage in several memorable roles such as Tughlaq (Tughlaq - Jun 2010), Patol Babu (Patol Babu Filmstar - Oct 2009), and Kashi Naresh (Madhavi - Feb 2009). Harish is also on Naatak's board and serves as its director of operations.

Producer

Siva Kollipara, a theater and dance enthusiast, has been with Naatak since its 29th production "Madhavi" in 2007. He has been actively involved in other Naatak productions (Tughlaq, K.K., Patol Babu Filmstar etc) and with other Bay Area productions. He has worked with various groups and has taken different roles as a backstage crew member, set builder, lights tech, sounds tech and sets manager. "8 Ghante" is his debut as a producer.

Playwright

Sujit Saraf's plays have been staged all over the US and India, at the National School of Drama in Delhi, Nandikar's festival in Kolkata, and the Bhartendu Natya Utsav featuring "the best plays staged in Delhi in 2007". His novel The Confession of Sultana Daku was published recently by Penguin. For more information, visit www.sujitsaraf.com

Cast

Harish Sunderam Agastya (also Director - see above)

 

Abhishek Das has actively pursued his passion for theater ever since his days in college. He has directed and performed in several Bay Area productions, the most recent ones being 'Madhavi' and 'Bhopal'. Abhishek occasionally dabbles in film-making, and in his free time - works on making search engines (Google) better. 

Crew

Set Design - Snigdha Jain

Sets & Props - Siva Kollipara, Snigdha Jain, Subashinee Krishnamurthy, Alka Sippy, Surendra Lele, Indranil Roychoudhury, Sreekumar Kodakara, Manjula Kollipara
 

Make-up - Soumya Agastya, Subashinee Krishnamurthy
 

Costumes - Snigdha Jain, Sharvari Dixit
 

Light & Sound - Kamala Subramaniam, Sreekumar Kodakara
 

Supertitles - Manish Sabu

Marketing - Rajiv Nema, Satish Karry, Manjusha Gangadharan

Website - Harish Sunderam Agastya, Asheesh Divetia
 

Graphics - Snigdha Jain

Ticketing - Ashok Malani, Ajay Sondhi
 
Brochure - Neha Kumar
 

Photography - Neha Kumar, Swagato Basumallick, Ashima Yadava
 

Video - Henry Cheung, Harsha Ramakrishna

"8 Ghante" Poster: Marketing is an Art.....

Poster for "8 Ghante" is out. After 2 weeks of brainstorming, creativity, negotiating with the artist without hurting her feelings ;-), convincing the Engineering types of your ideas....

It's no different than what I do at work for hi-tech marketing. Exact same steps - just it takes MUCH LONGER as there are several layers of bosses, everyone has to have an opinion (even if they dont deserve to have one ;-), there are things like "putting food on the table" and "career-limiting move" kind of phrases involved....so the marketing guy has to learn things like 'understanding different behaviors', looking at different people's Myers-Briggs profiles, politics, when to stop pushing the limits etc etc.

But I digress....

How is this poster? Does it make you stop - to read further - after the first glance. Every single facet of the poster is carefully designed to make that happen. Then, every word is carefully chosen. Does it make you want to watch the play? Does it create the intrigue? Does it tell you what the play is about? And the litmus test is, you as a customer after buying the product (after seeing this 'ad') feel satisfied or cheated?

Post comments here or send me feedback at rajiv.nema@gmail.com