Amitabh Bachchan returns to stage with Me Shahrukh Manjarsumbekar

For the first time since he started his career as a movie actor in 1969, Amitabh Bachchan returns to stage, albeit in a most unexpected way. The Big B will play himself on stage in Mahesh Manjrekar’s Me Shahrukh Manjarsumbekar and that too in Marathi. But not in person. He will be speaking to the play’s main protagonist played by Siddharth Jadhav, from a screen image which will be flashed at every performance of the play. And since the play will be in the form of an ongoing political comment with the politics changing in every performance according to the current headlines, it looks like the Big B has a long innings ahead on stage. "You can say that," laughs Mahesh Manjrekar, who returns to his first love, stage direction, with Me Shahrukh Manjarsumbekar. "Amitji will be seen in a dialogue with the Siddharth Jadhav character who plays the common man. The politics will change. But the two characters played by Jadhav and Amitji will remain the same." Interestingly, the Big B has played a part in the movie version of Me Shahrukh Manjarsumbekar. The movie entitled Struggler features Mahesh Manjrekar as the common man. Struggler is now ready for release after 5 years since its completion. Says Manjrekar, "It’s a coincidence that the play and film are going to be out at the same time. The movie is very different from the play. I’ve made a lot of changes in the play. The play will have an ongoing commentary on current politics." The first staging of Me Shahrukh Manjarsumbekar will focus on Rahul Gandhi’s comment during the Bihar election campaign to the effect that Maharashtra is prosperous today because of Biharis. Says Manjrekar, "It is such divisive politics that, my play will strive to criticize through the character of the common man. Amitji’s audio-visual will be the highlight of every show."