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Known for his lavish musicals, theatre director Feroz Abbas Khan returns to classic theatre with his latest, Letters of Suresh

- Suhani Singh

In the last decade, Feroz Abbas Khan has become the S.S. Rajamouli or Sanjay Leela Bhansali of the stage. With musicals like Mughal-e-Azam, Raunaq & Jassi and Civilization to Nation-the production which marked the launch of the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) in Mumbai-which are big on scale and spectacle and incorporate varied performing arts, Khan has made theatre more accessible. It wasn't a "conscious decision", says Khan, to anchor a ship of 100-plus cast and crew day in and day out, but doing so did necessitate a "yearning". "When it comes to pure theatre, my parvarish [foundation], where I feel most comfortable is the minimum," he says. "Going to the purest form of language and performance...that's the power of theatre."