Indian Drama and Entertainment Academy (IDEA) founded by Mr. Mujeeb Khan, is almost single handedly working for the promotion of Hindustani Theatre for many years. IDEA has been staging plays on relevant social issues from time to time, mostly topical, relevent to the people in general, affecting their day-to-day activities. IDEA also conducts workshops in schools and colleges.
IDEA was the only theatre group participating in the historical Dandi March from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi in March 2004, to commemorate the 75 years of the march. During this period IDEA staged plays on women empowerment, anti-gutka and national integration in the remote villages of Gujarat. IDEA performed a play titled ‘Tsunami-the terror’ at various railway stations and around other locales in Mumbai, Thane and had collected Rs. 48,000/- (rupees forty eight thousand only) for the Tsunami victims, for information IDEA was the only group in India to have shared the grief and suffering of the Tsunami victims. IDEA was also part of the peace march from (Rajasthan) to (Pakistan), and participated in the programme held at the Mantralaya (Mumbai) to commemorate 100 years of Satyagraha later we had also joined the peace march on October 2nd 2005 to Juhu (Mumbai).
IDEA has staged plays on various social issues, such as ‘MUNSIF’, ‘YEH BACHCHI KISKI’, ‘GUDIYA’, ‘MAT BAATIYE TRISHUL AUR TALWAR, BAATNA HAI TO BAATIYE THODASA PYAAR’, ‘BILQUIS BANO’, ‘IS DESH MEIN VIDYA BIKTI HAI’, ‘KYA KASOOR THA MEHER KA’, ‘KYUN LETE HO MAASOOMON KI JAAN’, ‘DHRUTA-EK MAASOOM BACHCHI’, ‘KANYADAAN’, ‘KYA IMRANA GUNEHEGAR HAI?’ ‘SAY NO TO DRUGS’, ‘BE POSITIVE ABOUT AIDS’, ‘AURAT BHI NA BACH PAAYEE AATANKWAD SE’, ‘ISSUES @ YOUTHPROBLEM.COM’, ‘MUMBAI YOU ARE JUST GREAT’, ‘AGA VARSHA AALI TUMCHI TAYAARI JHALI?’ ‘AB TO GANDHIGIRI CHALEGI BAPU’ and ‘JUSTICE FOR JESSICA’, ‘ HATYA ATMA HATYA APHARAN ALVIDA 2006’, ‘ SADDAM HUSSEN KHABRON KE AAINE MEIN’, ‘ NITHARI KE NAAHE MASOOM BACCHE’. All the above plays have been written and directed by Mr. Mujeeb Khan.
IDEA has been organizing inter-collegiate drama competition (The P.L.Deshpande Trophy) for the past four years and inter-school drama competition (The Kaifi Azmi Trophy) for the past 11 years. Both these competitions are absolutely free of cost wherein we do not charge any entry fees from the participating institutions but provide them with Lights, make-up and basic set, free of cost. Our objective is just to promote Hindustani Theatre at school and college level.
IDEA has been staging plays on relevant social issues from time to time, mostly topical, relevant to the people in general, affecting their day-to-day activities. IDEA also conducts workshops in schools and colleges.
IDEA was the only theatre group participating in the historical Dandi March from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi in March 2004, to commemorate the 75 years of the march. During this period IDEA staged plays on women empowerment, anti-gutka and national integration in the remote villages of Gujarat. IDEA performed a play titled ‘Tsunami-the terror’ at various railway stations and around other locales in Mumbai, Thane and had collected Rs. 48,000/- (rupees forty eight thousand only) for the Tsunami victims, Nagapatnam. For information IDEA was the only group in India to have shared the grief and suffering of the Tsunami victims.
IDEA was also part of the peace march from Jodhpur to Manabou (Pakistan border), and participated in the programme held at the Mantralaya (Mumbai) to commemorate 100 years of Satyagraha. Later we had also joined the peace march on October 2nd 2005 to Juhu (Mumbai).IDEA has been organizing inter-collegiate drama competition (The P.L.Deshpande Trophy) for the past six years and inter-school drama competition (The Kaifi Azmi Trophy) for the past 15 years. Both these competitions are absolutely free of cost wherein we do not charge any entry fees from the participating institutions but provide them with Lights, make-up and basic set, free of cost. The objective is just to promote Hindustani Theatre at school and college level. Besides IDEA had staged street plays for the Mumbai traffic police on two occasions viz “NO HONKING PLEASE” during the ‘No Honking Week’ and “TRAFFIC TRAFFIC” for the ‘Road Safety Week’ in 2009. They were asked to repeat their performance on road safety again in 2010 Another feather in the cap of IDEA was street play “NA GHOOS DO, NA GHOOS LO” for anti-corruption bureau, Nasik, beginning from Nasik, Nandurbar, Jalgaon, Malegaon, Dhulia, Ahmednagar, Aurangabad etc convincing people to stop taking or giving bribe. IDEA also performs plays at the Bandra Family Court every month on family issues through which they help in clearing the indifferences in the family and solving family matters.
Mujeeb Khan is a postgraduate from Mumbai University, working in theatre world since last 28 years. He has written 90 one-act plays and 3 full-length plays. He has directed 250 plays in English, Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati and Sindhi. He had been actively associated with famous theatre directors such as late Shafi Inamdar, Shekhar Purohit and Sk. Ahmed. He is actively involved in Hindustani theatre (Hindi-Urdu). He had written his 1st play at the age of 18 ‘ LACHARE MAI’ and got the best writer award at the Maharashtra State Urdu Academy and after seeing his play at a competition the judge veteran legendary writer Ismat Chugtai said the drama was so inspiring that she couldn’t believe it was the work of an 18 year old boy. After two yrs the same competition was being judged by Shaukat Kaifi and the competition had two plays directed by Mr Mujeeb khan, when Shaukat came to announce the results she said we decided the result of the entire competition in half an hour but the judgment of direction award took one hour because the director who got the 1st prize has directed two plays and both the plays were at power in direction then they had a toss and the play that received the trophy was ‘Apahij’.
Mujeeb Khan published his 1st drama book in the year of 1983 titled ‘LACHAR E MAI’ and received a special award. For many years he had been writing a drama column ‘Hindustani Stage’ in the famous Urdu daily ‘INQUILAB’.
EXPERIENCE IN TELEVISION Written and Directed 2000 episodes of film based in channels like D D 1 and 2, INMUMBAI, CVO, CITI cable, B4U, ETC, Zee, Jain, NEPC, Sony, ETV (Hindi, Urdu and Gurati. ANDAZ on Zee T.V. 250 Episodes SAATH SAATH on Zee TV 110 Episodes CHANDNI on Zee TV 52 Episodes MAAL HAI TO TAAL HAI on Star TV. 39 Episodes DAMAN on Sahara TV 39 Episodes ANUBHAV on D D Metro 26 Episodes AKHARI MAOUSAM on D D 1 13 Episodes NATEEJA THAN THAN GOPAL on NEPC 13 Episodes.