Shabana challenged in Rohtak

What was meant to be a routine staging of her play Broken Images in Rohtak last week, turned out to be a nightmare for actress Shabana Azmi. When Azmi arrived in Rohtak, she was told that there were 1,000 people in an auditorium meant for 800 people. "Then, one of the organisers casually asked if I could perform the play in Hindi, since 80 per cent of the audience didn't understand angrezi; as if I have a switch in my mouth! Dabaa do aur koi bhi language nikal jayega," says Azmi.

Not only is Broken Images written entirely in English, Azmi also had to match her on-stage dialogue delivery with a 40-minute video projection of herself.

"The director Alyque Padamsee was not there. I was on my own. For two hours, I stood in front of a 1,000-strong crowd and translated all the dialogues into Hindi on the spot. No rehearsals. No cues. No second chances. Not only that, I had to render all my dialogues in Hindi and react to my own video image which has, of course, been pre-recorded in English."

Azmi got a standing ovation at the end of the play.

Sighs the actress, "If I am told to go through the Rohtak experience again, my answer would be, no thanks. Never again."