ABSTRACT
In 2014, amidst worldwide observations of the 450th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s birth, including the launch of the Globe to Globe Hamlet, Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider was released to eagerly awaiting audiences in India and abroad. Coming after Maqbool (2003) and Omkara (2006), Haider was Bhardwaj’s third cinematic adaptation of a Shakespearean play and, like the previous two, was aimed at both domestic and international markets. 1 If the Globe’s Hamlet production went on a tour of 197 nations and 5 refugee camps with the purpose bringing the play “to as many people as possible” because “Shakespeare can entertain and speak to anyone” (Dromgoole 2014), then Bhardwaj’s Bollywood adaptation of the play with its screenings at film festivals and theatres worldwide demonstrated the persistence of a global viewership not just composed of traditional Shakespeare performances, but also of indigenous Shakespeares on stage and screen. Moreover, Haider draws not only upon Bollywood conventions, but more importantly incorporates local performative genres such as the Bhand Pather, that suggests its attentiveness both to global and regional theatrical traditions.
