Language & Literature
Madhur Jaffrey talks to
Shakespeare in India
9:30am | Sunday 16 September 2012Tickets: | Duration: | Venue: |
£N/A | 1 Hour | Blenheim Palace: The Orangery |
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This was an Oxford Literary Festival 2012 Event.
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Award-winning actress and cookery writer Madhur Jaffrey first won acclaim for her role as a Bollywood star in the 1965 Merchant Ivory film Shakespeare Wallah. The film followed a troupe of travelling Shakespeare actors as they grappled with a fall in demand for English theatre in the face an emerging Indian film industry. Shakespeare, however, remains important in India today, and is still the most studied author on English literature courses. Jaffrey will discuss the importance of Shakespeare in India and her own acting career.
Jaffrey was born in Delhi and won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London following a performance in Tennessee William’s Auto-da-Fe. From there her career took off. She appeared in various BBC TV and radio plays and enjoyed a spell in New York before her big success in Shakespeare Wallah. She went on to star in further Merchant Ivory films and to win accolades for theatre performances on Broadway and in the West End, and continues to appear in movies and TV films today.
Along the way, Jaffrey has also carved out a second career as a cookery writer and broadcaster and is regarded as a world authority on Indian food. An Invitation to Indian Cookery, published in 1973, was the first of many books and Jaffrey went on to become a household name when she presented the BBC series Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cookery.
Here she talks to Robert Hewison, theatre and arts correspondent for The Sunday Times since 1981, and author of some 20 books in the field of 19th and 20th-century cultural history.
The price for this event includes coffee/tea and cakes.
This event is supported by Eileen and Munir Majid.