Bunty Berman Presents…, a new Bollywood-themed musical comedy by Ayub Khan Din and Paul Bogaev, opens May 9 at off-Broadway’s Acorn Theatre on Theatre Row. Directed by Scott Elliott, the New Group production stars Din as Bunty Berman, Sorab Wadia as Raj Dhawan and Lipica Shah as Shambervi.
In addition to Din, Wadia and Shah, Bunty Berman Presents features Raja Burrows as Chandra Dass, Nick Choksi as Saleem, Sevan Greene as Nizwar, Lyn Philistine as Sandra De Souza, Gayton Scott as Dolly, Alok Tewari as Shankar Dass, as well as ensemble members Katie Chung, Andrew Guilarte, Shoba Narayanan, Debargo Sanyal and Pallavi Sastry. As previously announced, Erick Avari was initially slated to play Bunty Berman, but was forced to drop out of the production during preview performances when he suffered an onstage injury. Din stepped into the title role on April 24.
Set in a struggling 1950s Bollywood studio, Bunty Berman Presents tell sthe story of movie producer Bunty Berman (Din), who has long been the toast of Bombay. But when his biggest star and best friend Raj begins to lose his luster and the studio’s newest movie bombs, Bunty must navigate through divas, mobsters and ambitious tea-boys to keep his studio afloat.
Bunty Berman Presents features choreography by Josh Prince, set design by Derek McLane, costume design by William Ivey Long and lighting design by David Lander.