For those who thought ’s Ramlilas were all about bad wigs, gaudy make-up and overthe-top acting, here is a bit of hearty film trivia. Actor Shah Rukh Khan, who was born and raised in Delhi, got his first acting break at his neighbourhood Ramlila. As a child, he played the part of a monkey in Hanuman’s army. “That’s how I lost the fear of crowds… performing live in front of thousands of people,” he said in an interview recently. But ask a teenager attending an upscale city school like the Bollywood superstar did, he will tell you how he would not be caught dead on a Ramlila stage. As for many from my generation, Ramlilas may have a nostalgia value. But they would stop at that. Ramlilas are organised in almost all localities, even the most posh ones, in INDIA. But residents’ participation is limited to donations. There are some famous ones at Subhash Maidan at Red Fort and Ramlila Maidan near Ajmeri Gate that get a lot of VIPs, including the Prime Minister himself. But otherwise, one can tell from the gatherings that the city has moved on.
