Indian Masala, Aussie Style

Aishveryaa Nidhi

Theatre personality, Aishveryaa Nidhi gives a first person account of the thriving Indian theatre, arts and culture scene in Australia.

Indian theatre, arts and culture are thriving in Sydney now more than ever due to some recent and significant changes. Sydney has been one of the cities to have attracted a large number of migrants from all over the globe including the Indian subcontinent resulting in people becoming more tolerant of migration as they bring diversity not just in food and culture but in many other areas including the performing arts. This is seen through the festivals celebrated in Australia, influence of the media and the involvement of certain organizations in promoting art and culture from Indian subcontinent.

Australia’s history of migration from our sub continental countries has been fairly recent compared to the UK and USA which led to Australia falling behind celebrating diversities like them. Yet in a comparatively short span of time, Australia has embraced multiculturalism.

First generation migrants are usually in a transitional phase and are busy adapting to a new way of life however it is the second generation migrants that enjoy the fruits of their parent’s labour. Early instances of Indian migration occurred in the 1970’s and today when second generation Indians are starting to rediscover their roots, Australia decided to generate more revenue by encouraging and allowing international students to study here and apply for residency. This gave multiculturalism a new phase in Australia, a period where practicing cultural activities were to become more popular than ever. Talent from the Indian performing arts sector has spread gradually to reach many parts of the Australian community and increased local involvement and interest. The migrant parents liked this concept and some did not even mind if contemporary styles were adopted as long as their children got to be somewhat connected to their roots.

Technological advancements in forms of media and ease of communication allowed Australians to view an Indian way of life and made Australians more aware of different cultures as well as cultural practices throughout the world.
Bollywood is perhaps the most influential factor in connecting India with Australia. Bollywood was to discover its admiring audiences all over the world with the aid of subtitles in the globally spoken language English. This led to vast enthusiasm from the world as it allowed the movies to be enjoyed by people of varying countries. This was further hyped by some recent Bollywood productions consisting of 95% dialogues spoken in English. The common practice of every Bollywood movie to have songs and dance sequences were compared and contrasted with musicals and soon was bound to reach popularity.

This interest is evident by the recent increase in Bollywood movies being produced in Australia with the government assistance. It seems Australia’s clean sandy beaches have replaced the Swiss Alps as the scenery of choice of for many Bollywood directors with movies such as Janasheen, Dil Chahta Hai, Singh is King, Heyy Babby, Chak de India,Virsa, Salaam Namaste, Bachna Aye Haseeno, Love Story 2050 and We are Family being shot in various locations throughout Australia such as Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide etc.

Other than movies, concerts by Bollywood singers such the Oscar award winner A.R Rahman and other artists such as Sonu Nigam, Asha Bhosle, Adnan Sami, Jagjeet Singh, Udit Narayan, Pankaj Udhas , Madhushree, Shreya Goshal, Sunidhi Chauhan, Adnan Sami and many more have been the rage as of late with high numbers attending concerts.

Not to be outdone, several Bollywood actors have graced the land in recent years to perform theatre shows such as Paresh Rawal with his comic play Shaadi@Barbadi.com, Anupam Kher with his solo melodrama ‘Kuchh bhi ho sakhta hai’, and Lillete Dubey with Gandhi.

There are festivals throughout Australia celebrating these diversities intensifying the understanding of Indian/sub-continental culture by the western world. There have been grants approved by governments, involvement from local MPs to the ministers at federal and state government level in such multicultural events. The most widely known and attended of these events being the India Australia Friendship Fair and Festival of Chariots and In the NSW Parliament House Indian festivals such as Diwali and Vaisakhi are celebrated and the parliament house is illuminated

For obvious reasons as interest and population grew, so did the investments. Media confirmed Bollywood style of dancing as a recognized genre in television shows and competitions. There were more need of inspiration and recreation for the changing circumstances and this only meant more and more culturally inclusive practices and participations. East and West are now coming together as contemporary dance styles are invented. The thirst for something new has led to the making of a style in between (fusion) that enhanced the friendship and involvement of both Australian and Indian people, especially those who admire participating in the performing arts. Other examples include Musicals like Vaibhavi Merchant’s Merchants of Bollywood and Shamik Dawar’s Stars of Bollywood.

Operas are also not left behind eg. Opera Australia’s Hindu inspired Lakme, first produced in 2006. Lakme traveled to the UK and USA and is coming back to Sydney from 24 August 2011. Opera Australia has appointed a local Indian Australian theatre personality as a consultant for the production of Lakme to improve the Indian themes of the play. Also, Australia’s best theatre company, Sydney Theatre Company collaborated with local multicultural groups to produce a stage show LEVIATHAN, which involved 250 artists. Abhinay School of Performing Arts Inc. had a significant role in adding glamour and a Bollywood touch to the production, which pleased the artistic directors of STC, Cate Blanchet and Andrew Upton.

This exposure through change of international relations, knowledge via media and communications, increase in migration, frequency of local population practicing their culture and of course the breakthrough of Bollywood’s popularity amongst western worlds marked the Indian performing arts to be admired and followed more than ever. The demand just kept increasing for more and more cultural shows to be organized. It was matter of time when performers from India started to increase in Australia. It is evident with the Bollywood film festivals taking place in Australia and film stars like Aamir Khan, Vidya Balan, Juhi Chawla, Sanjay Suri visiting Australia to promote their films. Grapevine confirms that now Bachhans are visiting Sydney soon. We can’t wait to meet them.

Aishveryaa Nidhi is the Artistic Director at Abhinay School of Performing Arts Inc. and a well known theatre personality. She is organizing Indradhanush, a Festival of Hindi plays on 11 September, 2011 at 88 Carlton Parade, Carlton. She can be contacted at abhinay.schoolofperformingarts@gmail.com.