SECOND LIFE
His world’s the stage
SYEDA FARIDA
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Drama runs in adman Mohammed Ali Baig’s blood, which is why his ‘heritage theatre’ is a great hit.
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Photo: P. V. Sivakumar
Art and commerce: Mohammed Ali Baig.
It is tough to continue a legacy, especially if your grandfather’s record of 11 handicaps remains unequalled in the game’s history and your father was a doyen in Hindustani theatre. Advertising and corporate filmmaker Mohammed Ali Baig lo
ves horses but the passion stops there.
“My grandfather, Mirza Mehmood Ali Baig, played in the Prince of Berar Azam Jah Bahadur’s polo team. He was a partner in the second largest stud farm in the subcontinent. We hosted French and English guests here who played with him.” Obviously the concrete jungle in front of his ancestral home in Mehdipatnam once had hoofs pounding on it. And, as proof, there is a collection of sepia frames that adorn the villa.
Conversation then drifts to one particular frame: Qadir Ali Baig, a noted playwright of his times. “My father went to AMU. The cultural milieu there influenced him into Urdu theatre. ‘Darwaze kholdo’, Kishan Chander’s post-Partition work on national integration, was staged by him in then Bombay. Prithviraj Kapoor came to watch it for a few minutes and stayed on for two-and-a-half hours.”
But Mohammad Ali Baig’s own mainstay remained advertising; it was the time when ‘taste the thunder’ ruled the ad world. Today Mohammad Ali Baig’s Aditya Birla campaign is a case study in post-production techniques.
“When I was asked to join the board of Odyssey that comprised stalwarts like Shyam Benegal, Girish Karnad and Shekhar Kapur, some of whom had worked with my father, I confessed that no one in my family had gone to work and that too on a 9-5 grind.” And he went on to make award-winning documentaries and commercials as director.
The ad world
From writing a campaign for Rajiv Gandhi to creating a storyboard for BPL Audio; from a documentary film on child labour to one on the jewellery of Wodeyar and Asaf Jahi rulers; from directing campaigns for Ford, Fanta, Gillette, Thums Up to his association with World Bank, USAID, Pembinaan Redzai (Malaysia) and M&G (Hong Kong), Mohammed Ali Baig’s work included over 300 commercials for Indian and international clients. His award-winning documentaries were screened on Discovery Channel, CNN and Moscow Television.
“For me theatre was like ghar ki murghi; the costumes, headgear and building of sets… all gone in two weeks as against ad films that have a shelf life of 20 years and a massive reach. Further advertisement has a nice blend of art and commerce. It is all about creation of art that is saleable.”
Another audience
So when he moved back to Hyderabad in 2005, on the 20th anniversary of Qadir Ali Baig, and formed the Qadir Ali Baig Foundation with his mother Razia Begum, he did it with the familiar mindset; to play to a sizeable audience. The USP here was heritage theatre — works carefully chosen from the annals of royal documentation and tastefully presented in equally majestic historical settings.
The ‘Last Nizam’s Firman’ was staged at the beautiful Chowmahalla palace while he chose the Taramati Baradari — the platform of the dancer patronised by the Qutub Shahi ruler of Golconda — for the narrative on the poetess “Taramati: A Legend of an Artist: to help revive the places as cultural centres. “We had an audience base of 1,100 per show for ‘Taramati’s’ five shows. ‘Raat Phoolon Ki’ also had halls packed to capacity.”
The latter work, a tribute to the late poet, was an innovative blend of theatre, music and dance: Maqdoom Mohiuddin’s poetry, with Arif Zakaria, Alekhya Punjala, Rahul Sharma and M.S. Sathyu. The play was also chosen for the World Performing Arts Festival.
As chairperson of Qadir Ali Baig Foundation, he has been instrumental in making theatre both populist and meaningful, much like his ad films. The Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Festival is a phenomenon featuring works of Jabbar Patel, Habib Tanvir, Alyque Padamsee, Sohaila Kapur, Naseeruddin Shah and international productions as well.
“It is difficult to cater to smaller audience,” says the scion of theatre putting on his adman hat. He has successfully made his ‘heritage theatre’ a unique selling proposition in the times of cinema.
This column features little known aspects of well known personalities.
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