Fantazia Fantastique is a Mega Puppet Play with around hundred puppets.It is written and directed by AD-Man & Theatre Director Bharat Dabholkar.The puppets are designed by India’s ace Ventriloquist, Puppeteer & Puppet-Maker Ramdas Padhye. Just like animation films have voice-overs by different Bollywood celebrities, Fantasia Fantastique is India’s first Puppet Play with voice-overs by different Bollywood Celebrities like Jackie Shroff, Juhi Chawla, Jaaved Jaffri, Arshad Warsi, Sudesh Bhosale. Shankar Mahadevan has sung the title song for the play.The play is a family entertainer and can be enjoyed by entire family.
Speaking more about this Writer & Director of the play Bharat Dabholkar said “ I have done many plays like Bottoms Up, Carry on Heaven, Grandson of Bottoms Up which all had Hinglish as it’s language and it was played by live actors. But this is the only play which has puppets. It was great fun to write the script for it. All my plays has humor as it’s key element.However in this play, along with humor, it has fantastic visual appeal with mermaid, Octopus, Sea Horse and hundreds of fishes talking to you.I can say it’s like a Walt Disney movie on Stage. This play is very different from all my other plays that you have seen.And I am sure you will all enjoy it.The voices of all the different celebrities that I have used have been selected keeping the Puppet characters in mind.And believe me they suit the characters perfectly ”. So along with the Bharat Dabholkar’s USP i.e. Hinglish, we will be able to witness a 10 feet Evil Octopus, 20 feet Anaconda, 8 feet Dyno-Vulture and 100’s of different fishes.
Speaking more about the puppets Ramdas Padhye said “ I have been working on this project for 1 ½ year, because just like an animation film, I worked out the sketches of the puppets and then designed the puppets. The play has around 100 puppets which have been exclusively designed in my puppet studio.This puppet play is a confluence of several international puppetry techniques like Japanese Bunraku Style of Puppetry, French Black Light Puppetry besides the Indian Puppetry techniques. The look of the puppet is international and very contemporary and it can be enjoyed by any person from any country.This puppet play has more than 15 to 20 puppeteers and dancers. My sons Satyajit, Parikshit and my wife Aparna are also a part of this play and are the lead puppeteers along with me.” With career spanning 50 years and 9700 shows, Mr.Padhye says “It is a great fun to keep on doing something different and challenging. Both Bharat & I have worked really hard on this play. And I am sure everybody right from an 8 year old to 80 year old are going to enjoy it. It’s a complete family entertainer.”
