Salma Deewani, directed by Bhagyashree Tarke, will be staged in Bengaluru

Salma Deewani, a play written, directed and acted in by NSD alumni Bhagyashree Tarke, will be staged in Bengaluru

Salman Khan. The name that sends many hearts racing, is known for his sculpted body, blockbuster hits and shirt-dropping skills. He has a fandom that spans age, gender and borders. Inspired by this craze, Hyderabad-based theatre artiste, Bhagyashree Tarke has written and directed, Salma Deewani.

Bhagyashree also acts in the play, which will be staged in Bengaluru. “Salman Khan fandom is a part of the play. Salma is funny, wacky and an extrovert,” says the director over a call from Hyderabad. “She talks to people with no filter. That’s why the play is called Salma Deewani.”

Salma, Bhagyashree says, is a fan of Salman Khan. “She fantasises about him. Salman is also her escape route from the drudgeries of daily life as she lives alone with her two children while her husband is working in the Gulf.”

Bhagyashree, who was part of the Vishal Bharadwaj adaptation of Agatha Christie’s  The Sittaford Mystery, Charlie Chopra & the Mystery of Solang Valley, says she draws influences from Brecht, Tamil Nadu’s Therakoothu (a street theatre form), Grotowski’s Poor Theatre, Chekhov’s Psychophysical technique and Meisner’s Here and Now methodologies.

Salma Deewani has been staged at the International Theatre Festival of Kerala (2020 and 2022). The inspiration for the play, Bhagyashree says comes from her work as a journalist. “I come from the Old City in Hyderabad. I was working on an article on single-screen theatres and how multiplexes sounded a deathknell.”

That was when she discovered how a Salman Khan film made single-screen theatres thrive. “Women flocked to the theatre to watch him and the values he portrays as a hero. He is good looking, comes from a joint family and there is this image of him that he does not do sexy scenes on screen, which makes it easy for many to watch his films with family. The adulation and love the women have for Khan is a phenomenon that amused and inspired me to write Salma Deewani.”

Salma represents women across several communities whose husbands live abroad to earn a livelihood while the women manage the household, explains Bhagyashree, who wrote the play in March 2019. “Sadly, the play has not reached Salman Khan.”