@ Afaq Khan Sameer | Correspondent
New Delhi: The press conference of “Umrao Jaan Ada – The Musical” was held on 24th July in The Lalit Hotel, New Delhi. The live musical is going to be staged from 3rd August to 11th August at Jawaharlal Nehru Weightlifting Indoor Stadium, New Delhi, organized by gravity Zero Entertainment.
The members of the team present at the event included prominent Music Directors Salim Merchant and Sulaiman Merchant, Director Rajeev Goswami bagged the credit of managing the longest-running musical theater, “Beyond Bollywood”.Renowned Bollywood Singer Pratibha Singh Baghel who is going to play the iconic Umrao Jaan Ada and TV Actress Kanika Maheshwari will be portraying the character of Khanum Jaan.
The musical show with live performances is an adaptation of Mirza Hadi Ruswa’s classic novel Umrao Jaan Ada which focuses on the life of Umrao Jaan, a courtesan. Bollywood’s famous music composer duo Salim –Sulaiman Merchant will be adding magic theatrical adaptation. The lyrics are penned by Irfan Siddiqui, whereas the story is created by Varun Gautam. Actress Pooja Pant has choreographed the performances for the artists. For the grand musical experience, Gravity Zero Entertainment collaborated with Insider and Paytm for premier ticketing and event experience.
Present at the event, Music Composer, Salim Merchant spoke about the play, ” As Umarao Jaan Ada is a music theatrical, music is the backbone of the play. However the play is an adaptation of a book which was originally named ” Umrao Jaan Ada”, the story of the play has lots of layers and has its own uniqueness.”
Director Rajeev Goswami shared the story of the play and its concept,” It is a story of a small-town girl called Ameeran and her tragic love story. We have tried to portray the world-famous story in live musical form. I hope you all will enjoy it.”
Bollywood Singer, Pratibha Singh Baghel Playing lead as Umrao Jaan in the play said, ” I have really worked hard on my Kathak as I am a Singer by Profession and I had to justify with the role of Classic Umrao Jaan. Also, the play has amazing music which was very difficult for me to sing live on stage but I gave my best.”