Stars lend voice in 100-puppet play

MUMBAI: Raj Kapoor and Nargis may have played puppets in Chori Chori and Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Shah may have lent their voices in Shah Rukh Khan's Paheli, but it will be for the first time that film stars will lend their voices to puppets in Bharat Dabholkar's new play, Fantastic Fantazia, which will be staged in Mumbai on September 20.
Some of the actors who have lent their voices include Juhi Chawla, Javed Jaffrey, Shubha Khote and Arshad Warsi."A lot of other theatre actors will be giving a voice-over to the characters as well," says Dhabolkar.
It will also be for the first time that about 100 puppets will be used in a play. Ventriloquist Ramdas Padhye, who has partnered with Dabholkar in the past, and in this play as well, says, "Fantastic Fantazia is the first play to have voiceovers of Bollywood actors. The play also has songs that have been sung by Shankar Mahadevan and Sudesh Bhosale." The play is in Hinglish and for visual appeal, has a mermaid, sea horse, an evil octopus, an anaconda and different underwater creatures, says Padhye.
Actor Arshad Warsi says, "Plays for kids have to be really entertaining and one need to get their attention right. There is no pretence in children. If they don't like it, they make it very obvious."