Amal Allana
Encyclopedia
Amal Allana is an India
n theatre director, scenic designer and costume designer
and presently she is in her second consecutive term as the Chairperson of National School of Drama
, India's premier institute of Theatre training, she also runs the Dramatic Art and Design Academy (DADA), New Delhi, with her husband Nissar Allana, which they co-founded in 2000.
As a theatre director, she has directed over 55 plays in Hindi, including notable plays like, Aadhe Adhure (Mohan Rakesh
), Khamosh, Adalat Jari Hai (Vijay Tendulkar
adaptation of 1956 short-story, ‘Die Panne’ (Traps) by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
), Ashadh Ka Ek Din
(Mohan Rakesh), Tughlaq and Hayavadana (both by Girish Karnad
), Mahabhoj (Mannu Bhandari) (1982), King Lear
, Himmat Mai (Mother Courage
), Nati Binodini (2006) and Begum Barve (Satish Alekar
), many of which are known to have set trends in Indian theatre.
She was awarded the 1998 Sangeet Natak Akademi Award
in Direction, given by Sangeet Natak Akademi
, India's National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama
, noted theatre director and the first director of the National School of Drama; while her father was of Arab descent, her mother Roshan Alkazi, belonged to the Gujarati
Ismail Khoja community and did the costumes for almost all of her father's plays. She grew up in a household steeped in theatre and overlooked by her grandmother, a staunch Gandhian, and frequented by artists, writers and theatre personalities, further home was where her father did most of his play rehearsals. Incidentally, theatre director Alyque Padamsee
is her maternal uncle, and her brother Feisal Alkazi is also a theatre director. After completing her schooling, she skipped college and straightaway joined the National School of Drama, Delhi as graduation was not a necessary qualification then. Here she studied under her father and graduated in 1968, majoring in Direction, and also winning the Girish Gosh Award for Best Director and the Bharat Purushkar for the best all-round student.
In 1969, she received a scholarship from the former GDR
government to study the work of Bertolt Brecht
. It allowed her to do a two-year apprenticeship at the Berliner Ensemble
, Weimar German National Theatre, Volksbuehne, and the Deutsches Theater
Theatre of East Germany. Making her a part of the generation of Indian theater practitioners including, Habib Tanvir
, Vijaya Mehta
, and P.L. Deshpande, who had the first hand exposure to theatre of Brecht at the Berliner Ensemble, during the formative years of their career, and as with others, this too had a deep influence on her work as she later noted, "I'd seen Indian theatre as a foreigner, regional theatre as an outsider. Doing a course in East Germany helped me to put things together. Brecht
helped me to understand Indian theatre objectively, analytically..". She also spent time studying at Kabuki
and Noh
in Japan.
, based on Brecht's Threepenny Opera, which she co-directed with Fritz Bennewitz for NSD Repertory Company, Delhi.
Her collaboration with her husband, Nissar Allana started in 1971, when she was rehearsing her first solo play as a director, Brecht
’s A Man's a Man at St. Xavier’s College, Bombay (now Mumbai), that is when Nissar then studying medicine though impressed by Brecht and Casper Neher (Austrian-German scenographer), volunteered to do the sets. With Nissar handing stage craft, she has done over 55 production, many of them for their various theatre companies. First they set up, 'The Workshop' in Bombay (1972–1975), next when they moved to Delhi, they started Studio 1 (1977–1985), and in 1985 they founded Theatre and Television Associates.
She next taught in the Department of Indian Theatre, Panjab University, Chandigarh
, where she served as its head, 1977-8. During this period, she directed important productions of Brecht's The Exception and the Rule
in which Punjabi poet Manjit Tiwana
, acted along with Anupam Kher
and Anita Kanwar
, as well as Three Penny Opera.
Her first major production came in 1976, when she did Mohan Rakesh
’s Adhe Adhure, with NSD Repertory and three actors trained by her father, Surekha Sikri
, Uttara Baokar
and Manohar Singh
, which whom she went to work in several other plays of acclaim, including Himmat Mai (1993) based on Brecht
's Mother Courage and her Children
, Girish Karnad
's Nagamandal, and in Satish Alekar's Begum Barve. Her other plays include, Birjis Qadar Ka Kunba (1980), based on Federico García Lorca
's The House of Bernarda Alba Asadh Ka Ek Din (1981) (Mohan Rakesh), Mannu Bhandari`s Mahabhoj (1982), Aurat bhali Ramkali (1984), based on Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan
, Rajajaswant Singh (1989), based on Shakespeare`s King Lear
, Prashant Dalvi's Char Chowgi, Mahesh Elkunchwar
's Sonata and Innocent Erendira And Her Heartless Grandmother, based on a story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
, transposed to Rajasthan. She has also directed television drama, notably Mohan Rakesh's Adhe-adhure, Begum Barve, Manjula Padmanabhan
`s Lights Out, Char Chaughi, Teen takke ka swang. Though her most talked about production has been Nati Binodini (2006), which she directed after discovering the autobiography of early 20th century, courtesan turned Bengali stage actress, Binodini Dasi
, after two years of research, the result was a play which according to theatre critic, Romesh Chander was "her best production till date".
The first ever all-Indian theatre festival, Bharat Rang Mahotsav
1999, opened on 18 March in New Delhi, with staging of Girish Karnad
's play Nagamandala, which she directed. She founded Dramatic Art and Design Academy (DADA), situated at Khirkee Village, New Delhi, with her husband, Nissar Allana, a stage-set and lighting designer. Today she is Head of Acting there, while Nissar is the Director. In 2008, DADA started organizing a 10-day 'Delhi Ibsen Festival', which featured plays directed by Ratan Thiyam
, Anuradha Kapur and Neelam Mansingh. In 2009, the festival included four international productions, from China, Iran, Egypt and the Netherlands, apart from production of Henrik Ibsen
's plays by Shantanu Bose, Jyotish M.G., Neeraj Kabi and Zulekha Chowdhury, while Amal Allana's production, Metropolis brought together the female leads from three of Ibsen’s plays—A Doll’s House, Rosmersholm
and Hedda Gabler
in a modern mosaic set against the backdrop of present-day Mumbai and the 26/11 terrorist attacks
.
She has also worked as a set dresser
in Richard Attenborough
`s Gandhi
(1982) and costume designer in Mahesh Bhatt
`s Saransh
(1984)
's theatre group. Nissar Allana though a doctor by profession, practices stage design and lighting design and has worked in most of her plays, he is also the Director of Dramatic Art and Design Academy (DADA), which they founded in 2000 in Delhi. Their daughter Zuleikha Chaudhary is also a theatre director.
Her mother, Roshan Alkazi died in 2007, and a year later two books titled, Ancient Indian Costume and Medieval Indian Costume, based on her research of Indian costume through the history were published by Amal and her father Ebrahim, released at Art Heritage Gallery which was founded Ebrahim and Roshan together.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n theatre director, scenic designer and costume designer
Costume Designer
A costume designer or costume mistress/master is a person whose responsibility is to design costumes for a film or stage production. He or she is considered an important part of the "production team", working alongside the director, scenic and lighting designers as well as the sound designer. The...
and presently she is in her second consecutive term as the Chairperson of National School of Drama
National School of Drama
National School of Drama is a theatre training institute situated at New Delhi, India, established . It is an autonomous organization under Ministry of Culture, Government of India. It was set up in 1959 by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, and became an independent school in 1975...
, India's premier institute of Theatre training, she also runs the Dramatic Art and Design Academy (DADA), New Delhi, with her husband Nissar Allana, which they co-founded in 2000.
As a theatre director, she has directed over 55 plays in Hindi, including notable plays like, Aadhe Adhure (Mohan Rakesh
Mohan Rakesh
Mohan Rakesh was one of the pioneers of the Nai Kahani literary movement of the Hindi literature in the 1950s. He wrote the first modern Hindi play, Ashadh Ka Ek Din , which won a competition organized by the Sangeet Natak Akademi...
), Khamosh, Adalat Jari Hai (Vijay Tendulkar
Vijay Tendulkar
Vijay Tendulkar was a leading Indian playwright, movie and television writer, literary essayist, political journalist, and social commentator primarily in Marāthi...
adaptation of 1956 short-story, ‘Die Panne’ (Traps) by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Friedrich Dürrenmatt was a Swiss author and dramatist. He was a proponent of epic theatre whose plays reflected the recent experiences of World War II. The politically active author's work included avant-garde dramas, philosophically deep crime novels, and often macabre satire...
), Ashadh Ka Ek Din
Ashadh Ka Ek Din
Ashadh Ka Ek Din is a debut Hindi play by Mohan Rakesh in 1958 and is considered the first Modern Hindi play. The play received a Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for best play in 1959 and has been staged by several prominent directors to critical acclaim...
(Mohan Rakesh), Tughlaq and Hayavadana (both by Girish Karnad
Girish Karnad
Girish Raghunath Karnad is a contemporary writer, playwright, screenwriter, actor and movie director in Kannada language...
), Mahabhoj (Mannu Bhandari) (1982), King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
, Himmat Mai (Mother Courage
Mother Courage and Her Children
Mother Courage and Her Children is a play written in 1939 by the German dramatist and poet Bertolt Brecht with significant contributions from Margarete Steffin...
), Nati Binodini (2006) and Begum Barve (Satish Alekar
Satish Alekar
Satish Alekar is a Marathi playwright, actor, and theatre director. A founder member of the Theatre Academy of Pune, and most known for his plays Mahanirvan , Mahapoor , Atirekee , Pidhijat , Mickey ani Memsahib , and Begum Barve , all of which he also directed for the Academy...
), many of which are known to have set trends in Indian theatre.
She was awarded the 1998 Sangeet Natak Akademi Award
Sangeet Natak Akademi Award
Sangeet Natak Akademi Puraskar is an award given by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama. It is the highest Indian recognition given to practicing artists. The award consists since 2003 of Rs. 50,000, a citation, an angavastram , and a tamrapatra...
in Direction, given by Sangeet Natak Akademi
Sangeet Natak Akademi
Sangeet Natak Akademi is the national level academy for performing arts set up by the Government of India.-History:...
, India's National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama
Early life and education
Born in 1947 in Mumbai to Ebrahim AlkaziEbrahim Alkazi
Ebrahim Alkazi is one of the most influential Indian theatre directors and Drama teachers in 20th century Indian theatre. He also remained the Director of National School of Drama, New Delhi He has also been a noted art connoisseur, collector and gallery owner, and found Art Heritage Gallery in...
, noted theatre director and the first director of the National School of Drama; while her father was of Arab descent, her mother Roshan Alkazi, belonged to the Gujarati
Gujarati people
Gujarati people , or Gujaratis are an ethnic group that is traditionally Gujarati-speaking and can trace their ancestry to the state of Gujarat in western India...
Ismail Khoja community and did the costumes for almost all of her father's plays. She grew up in a household steeped in theatre and overlooked by her grandmother, a staunch Gandhian, and frequented by artists, writers and theatre personalities, further home was where her father did most of his play rehearsals. Incidentally, theatre director Alyque Padamsee
Alyque Padamsee
Alyque Padamsee is an Indian theater personality and ad film maker. He is probably best known in the English-speaking world for playing Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the film Gandhi...
is her maternal uncle, and her brother Feisal Alkazi is also a theatre director. After completing her schooling, she skipped college and straightaway joined the National School of Drama, Delhi as graduation was not a necessary qualification then. Here she studied under her father and graduated in 1968, majoring in Direction, and also winning the Girish Gosh Award for Best Director and the Bharat Purushkar for the best all-round student.
In 1969, she received a scholarship from the former GDR
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
government to study the work of Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
. It allowed her to do a two-year apprenticeship at the Berliner Ensemble
Berliner Ensemble
The Berliner Ensemble is a German theatre company established by playwright Bertolt Brecht and his wife, Helene Weigel in January 1949 in East Berlin...
, Weimar German National Theatre, Volksbuehne, and the Deutsches Theater
Deutsches Theater
The Deutsches Theater in Berlin is a well-known German theatre. It was built in 1850 as Friedrich-Wilhelm-Städtisches Theater, after Frederick William IV of Prussia. Located on Schumann Street , the Deutsches Theater consists of two adjoining stages that share a common, classical facade...
Theatre of East Germany. Making her a part of the generation of Indian theater practitioners including, Habib Tanvir
Habib Tanvir
Habib Tanvir was one of the most popular Indian Urdu, Hindi playwrights, a theatre director, poet and actor. He is the writer of plays such as, Agra Bazar and Charandas Chor...
, Vijaya Mehta
Vijaya Mehta
Vijaya Mehta is an Indian Theatre and film director and also an actor in many films from the Parallel Cinema. She is most known for her acclaimed role in film Party and for her directorial ventures, Rao Saheb and Pestonjee ....
, and P.L. Deshpande, who had the first hand exposure to theatre of Brecht at the Berliner Ensemble, during the formative years of their career, and as with others, this too had a deep influence on her work as she later noted, "I'd seen Indian theatre as a foreigner, regional theatre as an outsider. Doing a course in East Germany helped me to put things together. Brecht
Brecht
Brecht is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the towns of Brecht proper, Sint-Job-in't-Goor and Sint-Lenaarts. On January 1, 2006 Brecht had a total population of 26,464...
helped me to understand Indian theatre objectively, analytically..". She also spent time studying at Kabuki
Kabuki
is classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers.The individual kanji characters, from left to right, mean sing , dance , and skill...
and Noh
Noh
, or - derived from the Sino-Japanese word for "skill" or "talent" - is a major form of classical Japanese musical drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Many characters are masked, with men playing male and female roles. Traditionally, a Noh "performance day" lasts all day and...
in Japan.
Career
After returning from Germany, one of her early plays was Teen takke ka swang (1970), in Urdu with Surekha SikriSurekha Sikri
Surekha Sikri or Surekha Sikri Rege is Indian film, theatre and TV actor. She has won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress twice, for her role in Tamas in 1988 and for Mammo in 1995.-Early life and background:...
, based on Brecht's Threepenny Opera, which she co-directed with Fritz Bennewitz for NSD Repertory Company, Delhi.
Her collaboration with her husband, Nissar Allana started in 1971, when she was rehearsing her first solo play as a director, Brecht
Brecht
Brecht is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the towns of Brecht proper, Sint-Job-in't-Goor and Sint-Lenaarts. On January 1, 2006 Brecht had a total population of 26,464...
’s A Man's a Man at St. Xavier’s College, Bombay (now Mumbai), that is when Nissar then studying medicine though impressed by Brecht and Casper Neher (Austrian-German scenographer), volunteered to do the sets. With Nissar handing stage craft, she has done over 55 production, many of them for their various theatre companies. First they set up, 'The Workshop' in Bombay (1972–1975), next when they moved to Delhi, they started Studio 1 (1977–1985), and in 1985 they founded Theatre and Television Associates.
She next taught in the Department of Indian Theatre, Panjab University, Chandigarh
Panjab University, Chandigarh
Panjab University is one of the oldest universities in India. The university campus is residential, spread over an area of in sectors 14 and 25 of the city of Chandigarh...
, where she served as its head, 1977-8. During this period, she directed important productions of Brecht's The Exception and the Rule
The Exception and the Rule
The Exception and the Rule is a short play by German playwright Bertolt Brecht and is one of several Lehrstücke he wrote around 1929/30...
in which Punjabi poet Manjit Tiwana
Manjit Tiwana
Manjit Tiwana is an eminent poet, was born in Patiala, Punjab.-Biography:She did her M.A. in Psychology and English from the Punjab University in 1969 and 1973 respectively, and Ph.D. in Psychology in 1984. She also did Diploma in Indian Theatre in 1975.She has been a teacher of Psychology in...
, acted along with Anupam Kher
Anupam Kher
Anupam Kher is an Indian actor who has appeared in nearly 400 films and 100 plays. Though mainly appearing in Bollywood films, he has had roles in some films from other nations as well...
and Anita Kanwar
Anita Kanwar
Anita Kanwar is an Indian film and television actor who is best known for her role as Lajjo ji in the 1980s Doordarshan mega soap opera Buniyaad....
, as well as Three Penny Opera.
Her first major production came in 1976, when she did Mohan Rakesh
Mohan Rakesh
Mohan Rakesh was one of the pioneers of the Nai Kahani literary movement of the Hindi literature in the 1950s. He wrote the first modern Hindi play, Ashadh Ka Ek Din , which won a competition organized by the Sangeet Natak Akademi...
’s Adhe Adhure, with NSD Repertory and three actors trained by her father, Surekha Sikri
Surekha Sikri
Surekha Sikri or Surekha Sikri Rege is Indian film, theatre and TV actor. She has won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress twice, for her role in Tamas in 1988 and for Mammo in 1995.-Early life and background:...
, Uttara Baokar
Uttara Baokar
Uttara Baokar is an Indian stage actor, who also acts in both on films and television. An alumna of National School of Drama, she remained lead actress with the NSD Repertory Company in the 1970s and '80s, a period which saw the revival of Hindi theatre in Delhi, before moving to television and...
and Manohar Singh
Manohar Singh
Manohar Singh was a distinguished Indian theatre actor-director and a character actor in Hindi films. He is best known for his performances in films such as Party and Daddy...
, which whom she went to work in several other plays of acclaim, including Himmat Mai (1993) based on Brecht
Brecht
Brecht is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the towns of Brecht proper, Sint-Job-in't-Goor and Sint-Lenaarts. On January 1, 2006 Brecht had a total population of 26,464...
's Mother Courage and her Children
Mother Courage and Her Children
Mother Courage and Her Children is a play written in 1939 by the German dramatist and poet Bertolt Brecht with significant contributions from Margarete Steffin...
, Girish Karnad
Girish Karnad
Girish Raghunath Karnad is a contemporary writer, playwright, screenwriter, actor and movie director in Kannada language...
's Nagamandal, and in Satish Alekar's Begum Barve. Her other plays include, Birjis Qadar Ka Kunba (1980), based on Federico García Lorca
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
's The House of Bernarda Alba Asadh Ka Ek Din (1981) (Mohan Rakesh), Mannu Bhandari`s Mahabhoj (1982), Aurat bhali Ramkali (1984), based on Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan
The Good Person of Szechwan
The Good Person of Szechwan is a play written by the German theatre practitioner Bertolt Brecht, in collaboration with Margarete Steffin and Ruth Berlau. The play was begun in 1938 but not completed until 1943, while the author was in exile in the United States...
, Rajajaswant Singh (1989), based on Shakespeare`s King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
, Prashant Dalvi's Char Chowgi, Mahesh Elkunchwar
Mahesh Elkunchwar
Mahesh Elkunchwar is an Indian playwright with more than 15 plays to his name, in addition to his theoretical writings, critical works, and his active work in India's Parallel Cinema as actor and screenwriter....
's Sonata and Innocent Erendira And Her Heartless Grandmother, based on a story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in...
, transposed to Rajasthan. She has also directed television drama, notably Mohan Rakesh's Adhe-adhure, Begum Barve, Manjula Padmanabhan
Manjula Padmanabhan
Manjula Padmanabhan is a playwright, journalist, comic strip artist, and children's book author responsible for the play Harvest. She has also written such plays as Lights Out! ,Hidden Fires The Artist's Model and Sextet .Born in Delhi to a diplomat family in 1953, she went to boarding school in...
`s Lights Out, Char Chaughi, Teen takke ka swang. Though her most talked about production has been Nati Binodini (2006), which she directed after discovering the autobiography of early 20th century, courtesan turned Bengali stage actress, Binodini Dasi
Binodini Dasi
Binodini Dasi , also known as Notee Binodini, was a Calcutta-based, Bengali-speaking renowned actress and thespian. She started acting at the age of 12 and ended by the time she was 23, as she later recounted in her noted autobiography, Amar Katha published in 1913.- Biography :Born to...
, after two years of research, the result was a play which according to theatre critic, Romesh Chander was "her best production till date".
The first ever all-Indian theatre festival, Bharat Rang Mahotsav
Bharat Rang Mahotsav
Bharat Rang Mahotsav , or the National Theatre Festival, established in 1999, is the annual theatre festival of National School of Drama , New Delhi, India's premier theatre training institute of Govt. of India...
1999, opened on 18 March in New Delhi, with staging of Girish Karnad
Girish Karnad
Girish Raghunath Karnad is a contemporary writer, playwright, screenwriter, actor and movie director in Kannada language...
's play Nagamandala, which she directed. She founded Dramatic Art and Design Academy (DADA), situated at Khirkee Village, New Delhi, with her husband, Nissar Allana, a stage-set and lighting designer. Today she is Head of Acting there, while Nissar is the Director. In 2008, DADA started organizing a 10-day 'Delhi Ibsen Festival', which featured plays directed by Ratan Thiyam
Ratan Thiyam
Ratan Thiyam is an Indian playwright and theatre director, and the winner of Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1987, one of leading figures of the "theatre of roots" movement in Indian theatre, which started in 1970s...
, Anuradha Kapur and Neelam Mansingh. In 2009, the festival included four international productions, from China, Iran, Egypt and the Netherlands, apart from production of Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
's plays by Shantanu Bose, Jyotish M.G., Neeraj Kabi and Zulekha Chowdhury, while Amal Allana's production, Metropolis brought together the female leads from three of Ibsen’s plays—A Doll’s House, Rosmersholm
Rosmersholm
Rosmersholm is a play written in 1886 by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. In the estimation of many critics the piece is Ibsen's masterwork, only equalled by The Wild Duck of 1884...
and Hedda Gabler
Hedda Gabler
Hedda Gabler is a play first published in 1890 by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. The play premiered in 1891 in Germany to negative reviews, but has subsequently gained recognition as a classic of realism, nineteenth century theatre, and world drama...
in a modern mosaic set against the backdrop of present-day Mumbai and the 26/11 terrorist attacks
2008 Mumbai attacks
The 2008 Mumbai attacks were more than 10 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai, India's largest city, by Islamist attackers who came from Pakistan...
.
She has also worked as a set dresser
Set dresser
-In Film:Set dressers arrange objects on a film set before shooting. They work under the direction of a leadman, a set decorator and a production designer. Set dressers place furniture, hang pictures, and put out decorative items. They are also responsible for some light construction and assembly...
in Richard Attenborough
Richard Attenborough
Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...
`s Gandhi
Gandhi (film)
Gandhi is a 1982 biographical film based on the life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who led the nonviolent resistance movement against British colonial rule in India during the first half of the 20th century. The film was directed by Richard Attenborough and stars Ben Kingsley as Gandhi. They both...
(1982) and costume designer in Mahesh Bhatt
Mahesh Bhatt
Mahesh Bhatt , is a prominent Indian film director, producer and screenwriter.Bhatt's early directional career consisted of acclaimed films, such as Arth, Saaransh, Janam, Naam and Zakhm....
`s Saransh
Saransh
Saransh is a registered charitable trust working with people with disability in villages of India under the Indian Trust Act. Saransh primarily works towards the betterment of the disabled and the poor in villages...
(1984)
Personal life
She is married to Nissar Allana, whom she first met at the age of 15 in a father's Ebrahim AlkaziEbrahim Alkazi
Ebrahim Alkazi is one of the most influential Indian theatre directors and Drama teachers in 20th century Indian theatre. He also remained the Director of National School of Drama, New Delhi He has also been a noted art connoisseur, collector and gallery owner, and found Art Heritage Gallery in...
's theatre group. Nissar Allana though a doctor by profession, practices stage design and lighting design and has worked in most of her plays, he is also the Director of Dramatic Art and Design Academy (DADA), which they founded in 2000 in Delhi. Their daughter Zuleikha Chaudhary is also a theatre director.
Her mother, Roshan Alkazi died in 2007, and a year later two books titled, Ancient Indian Costume and Medieval Indian Costume, based on her research of Indian costume through the history were published by Amal and her father Ebrahim, released at Art Heritage Gallery which was founded Ebrahim and Roshan together.