Introducing Shakespeare: A Graphic Guide - Nick Groom, Piero 2013

Shakespeare on a Global Scale

Shakespearean cinema is global. The plays translate easily into other cultures — witness Ran, Akira Kurosawa’s Samurai film of King Lear. Again, it may be the lack of a dogmatic moral order that makes the material so flexible. In India too, for example, there is a rich Shakespearean tradition.

SHAKESPEARE WAS FIRST PERFORMED IN BOMBAY IN 1770, BEFORE DEVELOPING INTO A REGIONAL MUSICAL TRADITION. IN URDU, SHAKESPEARE HAS BEEN TRANSLATED MORE THAN ANY OTHER FOREIGN AUTHOR. HAMLET (KHUNE-NAHAQ OR UNJUST MURDER) IS STAGED AS A MUSICAL.

As in the West, the declamatory Shakespearean style of Indian acting remained well into the advent of the movies and shaped the Bollywood film industry.