Aamir Raza Husain, creator of stage spectacles, passes away aged 66

Much before India was swept off its feet by bigscreen spectacles such as Baahubali RRR and now the upcoming Aadipurush Aamir Raza Husain was the creative powerhouse who gave us our earliest experience of a mega theatrical production in The Fifty Day War which till the year 2000 had not been replicated on any stage in either scale or visionOn Saturday June 3 Husain 66 passed on leaving behind a legacy of memorable stage productionsHe is survived by his wife and creative partner Viraat Talwar whom he met when she was a student of Lady Shri Ram College and had come to audition for a play Dangerous Liaison and their two sonsIf The Fifty Day War narrated the Kargil story on a scale that had not been attempted by anyone with an original Indian script on an Indian stage Alyque Padamsee did something similar with Andrew Lloyd Webers Jesus Christ Superstar but then it was not an original production The Legend of Ram which was staged on a smaller scale in 1994 became the gold standard for theatrical spectacles when it was relaunched in 2004The production of The Legend of Ram involved 19 outdoor sets spread over three acres and a cast of 35 actors playing different characters drawn from the epic and a 100member technical crew The last show was staged in front of the then President APJ Abdul Kalam on May 1 2004Husain was born into an aristocratic Awadhi family on January 6 1957 His parents were divorced his father whom be barely saw was an engineer with Bechtel and set up the water works of MeccaMedina so he was brought up by his mother and her family in the days of the British Raj they presided over a little principality named PirpurHe went to Mayo College Ajmer and after he completed his schooling he read History at St Stephens College where he acted in several college plays under the direction of such legends as Joy Michael Barry John and Marcus Murch It was an early start to a career devoted to English theatre and his company Stagedoor Productions which became known to lift ordinary theatre to the realm of the spectacular since 1974Husain did appear in two films in Kim 1984 based on Rudyard Kiplings novel with Peter OToole playing the lead and Shashanka Ghoshs romantic comedy drama Khubsoorat 2014 starring Sonam Kapoor and Fawad Khan but he was wedded to theatreOver the years he produced several plays staged at outdoor locations Sare Jahan Se Achcha 1947 Live and Satyamev Jayate which was staged along the backdrop of the 14thcentury Hauz Khas monument in Delhi in 1999Previously in 1998 Husain and his troupe in collaboration with Delhi Tourism organised the Chaudvin ka Chand festival on a 2km stretch between the Red Fort and Fatehpuri Mosque in Chandni Chowk in the neighbourhood now celebrated as Dilli6With 91 productions and more than 1100 performances behind him and a Padma Shri awarded to him in 2001 Hussain spent his last years developing the Qila next to the Select CityWalk mall in South Delhis historic Saket neighbourhoodLike all things bearing the Husain stamp the Qila has emerged as a coworking space where corporates and creative souls work under one roof to incubate business ideas or the next big theatre productionUnfortunately for Husain as he lamented in a recent interview theatre remains a hobby or at best a second profession in India but fortunately thanks to the efforts of pioneers like him it is by no means wallowing in poverty Far from that being the case it has become the nursery of the best and brightest in cinemaThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever