Theatre director Feroz Abbas Khan | Back to roots

In the last decade, Feroz Abbas Khan has become the S.S. Rajamouli or Sanjay Leela Bhansali of the stage. With musicals like Mughal-e-Azam, Raunaq & Jassi and Civilization to Nation—the production which marked the launch of the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) in Mumbai—which are big on scale and spectacle and incorporate varied performing arts, Khan has made theatre more accessible. It wasn’t a “conscious decision”, says Khan, to anchor a ship of 100-plus cast and crew day in and day out, but doing so did necessitate a “yearning”. “When it comes to pure theatre, my parvarish [foundation], where I feel most comfortable is the minimum,” he says. “Going to the purest form of language and performance… that’s the power of theatre.”