Shreyas Talpade: Nine Rasa has no gimmicks, just pure theatre

Shreyas Talpade, Indian actor and theatre performer, recently launched his OTT platform Nine Rasa exclusively for theatre and performing arts,

Actor Shreyas Talpade attributes his roots in acting to be in theatre. His brainchild, OTT platform Nine Rasa, was launched on April 9. Nine Rasa, the first OTT platform to feature only theatre and performing arts content, is Talpade’s attempt to bring the magic of theatre to audiences across the world. Here are excerpts of his conversation with OTTPlay about the ideation of Nine Rasa, the challenges he faced, and his views on OTT platforms.,,

How did the idea for Nine Rasa come about?

The idea came during the last lockdown - around April or May - when things were completely shut. All of us were thinking about what we should do, especially my friends from the theatre fraternity. All the theatres were shut and I felt like if everything is online, why should theatre be any different? Even theatre has the potential to go online. The intention behind Nine Rasa was purely to do something for the theatre community. I thought that we could shoot certain plays or get those plays on board that were playing before the lockdown. This is where our thought process around Nine Rasa began and a lot of my friends supported the idea. The more we thought about it, the more we felt that there is a bigger need for Indian theatre to reach millions of people worldwide. Nine Rasa started with wanting people to experience the magic of theatre and after 11 months of hard work, we finally launched the platform.,,

What gaps in streaming services is Nine Rasa aiming to fill? Nine Rasa is the world’s first ever OTT platform that is dedicated to theatre and the performing arts. There aren’t too many platforms doing something especially for theatre. There are a couple of platforms that have plays, but they have other content too. That is the major difference between other OTT platforms and Nine Rasa - the latter is only focused on bringing theatre to the forefront., Theatre is one of the finest forms of entertainment and the kind of potential that theatre has is huge. At Nine Rasa, a hundred percent of our audience is waiting to see more and more theatre that entertains them.,,

What kind of an experience is the app going to provide to those who are watching theatre for the first time? The app will have everything that happens on stage. That includes one-act plays, skits, stand-ups, poetry readings and more. The content will be available in multiple Indian languages like Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and English. Going forward, we are also trying to acquire content in other regional languages like Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu. It’s a long walk, but slowly and steadily we will get there., Do you think there have been advantages that digital spaces have brought to performing arts in the pandemic?,, In the pandemic, people got to know what OTT is all about. Just before the lockdown, there weren’t so many platforms and only a select number of people were consuming their content. But OTT has become a household name due to the pandemic. This has opened up the world for everyone, so many people got to see some outstanding content, some fantastic performances and some hardcore acting. OTT has opened up new avenues, not only for filmmakers but also for audiences.,,

What challenges did you face while working on Nine Rasa? A lot of challenges, actually! We started working on this platform during the lockdown. In normal times, we would meet each other and figure out how everything is to be done. But we weren’t allowed to step out and everything had to happen over phone calls, zoom meetings and Google Meet. We took some time to get used to the virtual space., Additionally collecting content, taking permissions to shoot, following the protocols, and getting COVID tests took a lot of time. But I believe that we were patient and very convinced with our idea. Had it been anybody else, they’d have pushed the idea back saying ‘Arey itna magajmaari hai!’ (this is such a headache). But our team felt that this was something that just had to be done. We took everything one day at a time, waited for the right moment and then we shot our plays following all protocols and precautions. Ultimately, we had no COVID positive cases in our midst.,, Then we started editing during the post-production. Every content piece is original and has been shot exclusively for Nine Rasa. In post-production, we had to tweak everything to suit out vision. This included offline and online edits, background score - the works. Then we put in the subtitles, so every play that you watch will have English subtitles playing with it. We had approximately 100 hours worth of content that we had shot that would come to the platform in a phased manner.,, So yes, there were a fair share of challenges. But where there’s a will, there’s a way, right?,,

There are certain elements of a theatre performance that audiences look forward to like interaction. How do you think those elements will translate onto a digital space? It is extremely difficult to replicate the essence and spontaneity of a live performance, anywhere for that matter. Having said that, I believe that whoever wants to see a live performance may never get a chance to go and watch it., Not everyone is able to accommodate a play in their schedule. If you’re working in Andheri and have a show to catch at Churchgate, you’re not going to be able to make it in time! But the next day, it is not possible to know what time the play is going to be performed tomorrow, so there are certain limitations that a live performance has. It’s not like a film - you can’t catch the next show if you miss the one you had tickets for.,, Even with the advent of OTT, there are still so many people who want to go see a film in a theatre. That is a given. But there are crores of people out there who are not able to go out and watch a play. Does that mean they should not watch that play ever? It’s a beautiful content piece which should reach out to more people so that they know what theatre is all about. This is why when we have technology, we should definitely use it.,, What we are trying to do at Nine Rasa is that we are trying to go as close to the live performance as possible. And that’s the reason why we keep the sanctity of the play intact by shooting it in an auditorium. So, when someone is watching it at home, they get the feel of watching a natak! We’re not trying to convert theatre into a web series - we want to show theatre exactly how it is. There are no gimmicks, just pure theatre.,, Had cricket not been brought to our TVs, it would not have garnered this reputation of being a religion. That’s the idea behind Nine Rasa - there are so many plays out there that deserved to be watched. I would love to go see The Lion King at Broadway, but I’m not able to. That doesn’t mean I can’t see it though, right? When we have the technology to get a play to our devices, then ‘Why shouldn’t we?’ is my little argument.,,

Did your experience as an actor and a performer enable you to bring something new to the table? To a large extent, yes. But I alone will not take credit for it - my team at Nine Rasa is wonderful and equally responsible for bringing in some amazing content to people. My experience on stage and as a theatre actor has definitely helped in the selection and designing of certain content, but even the team involved is working very hard towards it., We have no references. This is the first ever OTT dedicated to theatre and performing arts, so we don’t really know how it will be received or what all should be added to the platform. It’s only when people will see it that we’ll figure out what mistakes we have made. But we want people to at least take a look at it and respond to it.,, Nine Rasa is, like I said, a democratic model - it’s of the people, for the people and by the people. And only people will help in running it.,,

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