Anurag Hans has a clear vision of the future, and it’s audacious: “On weekends, when young couples want to go out, they’ll toss between a film in a multiplex or a play at Kamani,” he says. It isn’t wishful thinking, says Hans, an engineer-turned-MBA from IIM Bangalore, as he launches into the saleability factors of theatre.

A few months ago, the 31-year-old senior manager with Pepsico in Gurgaon, quit his job to “do to theatre what cable did to TV, the FM did to radio and the multiplex did to cinema”—Add Excitement and Mass Connect”. Along with his wife and IIMB junior Leena Kinger, 29, he set up Manchrang, a theatre platform that marries stagecraft with corporate branding and marketing techniques. Manchrang’s first event, also called Manchrang, will take place on October 3.

“Social and intellectual theatre is great, but to become commercially viable, theatre has to offer pure entertainment that the middle class and the youth can relate to,” he says. Both Leena and he have participated on stage since college and were disappointed to see empty seats in Delhi auditoriums. On their drawing board are plans to use database marketing, online ticketing and radio and print advertisements, as well as sponsorships to ensure that theatre professionals do not work for a pittance.

“Theatre has to be seen to be a medium in which actors can make money,” says Kinger, an assistant professor of Finance at IILM in Gurgaon. Manchrang, formed in July, sent out notices calling for “short story-based plays which are entertaining and redefine theatre”. Fifty-six groups from the NCR, Pune, Mumbai and Bangalore responded and four acts were shortlisted, all from the NCR. “Four plays will be staged, all from a different genre. At the end, the audience will decide the winner,” Hans adds.

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