Remembering Shivaji Chaturvedi, a man who conquered the stage and hearts

Theatre personality, Shivaji Chaturvedi who passed away recently, was known for his signature handle-bar moustache and thunderous guffaw. He had a passion for music too, says D. Ramachandran, a member of the Madras Youth Choir, founded by M.B. Shrinivas, who was a friend of Shivaji. Shivaji enjoyed being with Shrinivas when he composed music.

Kalyani Raman, a longtime friend of Shivaji, says, “A band called Missiles was started in 1966-67, and my brothers — guitarist Chandrasekaran and drummer Purushottaman — who played for Ilayaraja for 47 years, were among the founder-members. Shivaji joined Missiles. He was adept at public relations, and organised programmes at prestigious venues. In 1969, he got HMV to release an LP record of Missiles. In the 60s , he heard a young girl named Usha Iyer (today known as Usha Uthup) sing and was impressed. He arranged programmes for her with Missiles playing for her. Usha and Missiles performed at actor Jaishankar’s house warming ceremony. In the 70s , bands would perform at Safire theatre in the mornings. Shivaji arranged a concert for Missiles at Safire, and it was a houseful show.” 

Shivaji Chaturvedi along with the founder-members of Stage Creations, T.D. Sundarrajan and Kathadi Ramamurthi.
| Photo Credit:
K. V. SRINIVASAN

Shivaji was one of the founder-member of Stage Creations, along with Kathadi Ramamurthi, T.D. Sundarrajan and Bobby Raghunathan. His portrayal of the generous Muslim shopkeeper Rowther in the play ‘Dowry Kalyana Vaibhogame’ won all-round appreciation. 

He was also a founder -member of Shraddha, a theatre group established in 2010. Shraddha’s first play Dhanushkoti, written and directed by Vivek Shankar, was about a storm and subsequent flooding of Dhanushkoti in 1964. “We wanted to show the town being pounded by rain. Shivaji told me not to worry about the production cost, and arranged for the funds. Art director, Balachander, drew up the plans. But Krishnaswamy, secretary of Narada Gana Sabha, refused to allow water on stage, fearing damage to the wooden flooring . Shivaji convinced him there would be no damage. We had a truck of water stationed outside the venue, to pump in fresh water, which flowed into various collection points on the stage, cleverly hidden behind props, and pumped out. No other play has ever been staged with water on the stage for a duration of an hour-and-a-half. It was possible only because of Shivaji’s efforts.”

Vivek says Shivaji always had a contingency fund, to help out his theatre friends when they needed the financial help. When Shivaji was in the Gulf, he arranged for many theatre groups to stage plays there too. For Crazy Mohan’s play ‘Chocolate Krishna’, Shivaji performed the magic tricks, which were popular with children. In T.V. Varadarajan’s ‘IPL Kudumbam’, an actor had to transform on stage from Brahma to Vishnu and then to Siva. Each change took just 20 seconds, thanks to Shivaji’s efforts.

In the 70s, dance master K.J. Sarasa and her students were invited to perform ‘Shakuntalam’, a dance-drama in Ujjain for Kalidas Samaroh. “The person who was to play the palace guard didn’t turn up. We asked Shivaji to be the guard, he agreed, being the good sport that he was. As it was a dance drama, he had to enter the stage as a dancer. We taught him a few steps and he pranced on to the stage and did quite a good job, although all of us were in splits. We won the first prize that year and Shivaji claimed it was because of his performance,” laughs Prema Sadasivam, Shivaji’s sister.

Off stage too, Shivaji touched the lives of many with his generosity and his wide range of interests.