After giving Macbeth a tantrik makeover, Alyque Padamsee, is set to make Othello sing. The ad guru is working on a musical on one of Shakespeare’s major tragic heroes. Auditions are on in Mumbai and the play will be staged towards the middle of this year. “Shakespeare’s works have been written in iambic pentameter, which means that you can make him sing by putting the dialogues into rhythm,” says 77-year-old Padamsee. Once he discovered that the blues are also in iambic pentameter, he was determined to present Othello with a difference. This is Padamsee’s second tryst with Othello. The first, in 1990, had Kabir Bedi and Nikki Vijayakar in the lead.

Padamsee says he is fascinated with Othello, the passionate lover obsessed with Desdemona, and considers the musical his tour de force project. The script will be set to song by Louis Banks and Padamsee is pulling out the stops to make the sets, costumes and lights as extravagant as possible. Costumes will be by designer Tarun Tahiliani, and Shiamak Davar has been roped in to choreograph the dance sequences. Padamsee adds that he will take the production to the UK and the US. “It is an ambitious project and needs international promotion,” he says.