Old melodies in Vivek Oberoi's Kingdom Of Dreams

A large number of Lata Mangeshkar and Mohd Rafi's evergreen melodies from the 1950s will be used in the Bollywood-inspired play Kingdom Of Dreams featuring Vivek Oberoi, Isha Sharwani and Gauhar Khan. It will be staged in May at the newly constructed theatre in Gurgaon near Delhi.

Informs Javed Akhtar, "The first-half will have 11 evergreen melodies. The second-half will have 8-9 songs. We're still locking in on the final songs. There's dispute about some of the songs to be included."

Javed has been on stage before. "I had seen a lot of theatre; I've written Kaifi Aur Main. But that is not pure theatre. And besides I've hardly used my own words in Kaifi Aur Main. I've either taken excerpts from Shaukat Azmi's book or interviews on video. 'Kingdom Of Dreams' is unlike anything done on stage in India. The kind of facilities I was provided was mind-numbing. I've seen the theatre in Gurgaon. India has never seen anything like this. There will be horses and elephants running on and off stage."

In the meanwhile, Vivek left for Delhi on Friday for a month-long rehearsal with his two leading ladies Isha Sharwani and Gauhar Khan who play the princess and the gypsy fighting for Oberoi's attentions. Considering the fireworks that Gauhar generated with Shazahn Padamsee in Rocket Singh Salesman Of The Year, there's bound to be a lot of behind-the-curtains excitement between Gauhar and Isha.

Says Vivek, "I guess I'm a very lucky guy. I got to woo three ladies in my new film Prince and now these two ladies in my play. Kingdom Of Dreams is unlike anything we've seen in this country."