‘The Producers’ – Raj Ghatak talks Carmen Ghia, Representation, ‘East is East’, ‘Bombay Dreams’, ‘Hijra’
Indian heritage recognised in West End smash adapted from classic Hollywood showbiz satire…
ACTOR Raj Ghatak doesn’t look like someone who’s been treading the boards for 27 years now.
The ‘Bombay Dreams’ star is currently proving a draw as Carmen Ghia in the current West End musical, ‘The Producers’. It’s a five-star reviewed show, there is much awards nomination chatter and the run has been extended well into next year now.
Hollywood legend Mel Brooks’ classic musical send-up of two producers who think they can scam their way to a fortune by producing a flop and taking their investors’ cash, continues to enthral and delight.
Brooks’ original 1967 film has become a cult classic and this stage adaptation, directed by Patrick Marber, is enjoying huge success in the capital – transferring from the Menier Chocolate Factory in South London when it opened last year (November 2024-March 2025) to the Garrick Theatre in central London now – where it runs well into the Autumn of next year (see listings below). In these challenging times, a good laugh is what we all need – the ticket sales certainly seem to suggest this.
The original Broadway (New York) stage production at the turn of this century still holds the highest number of Tony (America’s top theatre) awards – 12.
Gia is a personal work assistant to one of the main two central characters – accountant Leo Bloom (Marc Antolin) who is the innocent figure initially, when producer Max Bialystock (Andy Nyman) first approaches him and says he is raising money for a Broadway production.
They embark on finding the worst director – Roger DeBris (Trevor Ashley) – and terrible performers – the main lead is dragged off the street, literally – for their musical, ‘Springtime for Hitler’.
The production itself is set just a few years after the devastating Second World War – and to their shock, surprise and later alarm (!) – the production turns out to be a massive sell-out.
Part of the fun of ‘The Producers’ is that the main characters really don’t have any personal scruples – they’re out to get the most for themselves whether that be cash, status or relationships.
“Carmen (Ghatak’s character) is totally in love with Roger DeBris but it’s completely one-sided.
“They’re actually very co-dependent and Roger always turns to Carmen. He is always there for him.”
In this production at The Garrick, Ghia is more overtly South Asian.
“The clothes are more personal choices,” revealed Ghatak to www.asianculturevulture.com.
This is a full-on “Gold Standard” musical as Ghatak described it.
“I didn’t start out in musical theatre, my background is in straight text, plays, film, TV but being a good Bengali boy, I was exposed to a lot of singing.
“Both my parents are from Kolkata and they were always singing – my father sang Tagore songs and my mother plays an instrument and my sister’s a classical singer.
“And not long after I graduated from the Central School of Speech and Drama (in London), I was in ‘West Side Story’.”
“It was like a dream come true,” reflected Ghatak. “And then from that, I went to ‘Bombay Dreams’.
His professional start was in a comedy sketch show which was put on at the Waterman’s Centre in Brentford, west London. It was performed around 1998.
“It was a bit like ‘Goodness Gracious Me’ (the hit BBC TV comedy sketch show which became an international hit) – called ‘Arrange That (marriage)’ and another companion piece called ‘Don’t look at my sister’.
“I was playing lots of different characters over a short space of time and it really forced me to sharpen my skills to make it all work.
“It was very much poking fun at our own (Asian) culture but very much from the bubble looking out…”
It leads us to that perennial conversation about Representation or Diversity – when Ghatak started out there was hardly an Asian or black face in mainstream theatre, TV or film.
From this sketch show, he went into Ayub Khan Din’s now seminal ‘East is East’ play (the film came after) – a story about mixed race sibling teenagers helping to run a chip shop and being tryannised by their very traditional South Asian father. It is based on Din’s own upbringing in Manchester, his mixed heritage and less than relaxed late father.
After ‘East is East’ Ghatak was the lead in another stage production, ‘Hijra’ by Ash Kotak – it’s described as “a comedy drama which explores community, sexuality and identity”.
ACV puts Ghatak on the spot and asks him which sticks in the memory of all his professional work?
“That’s like being asked to choose your favourite child, isn’t it?” He chuckled. “‘West Side Story’ because it was a West End musical and a real landmark for me and ‘Hirja’ as it was my first as a lead – and ‘Bombay Dreams’. There had never been a show like that on such a large scale.”
It was produced by Britain’s most prolific West End musical impersario, Andrew Lloyd-Weber and had the music of the now Oscar-winning AR Rahman.
It ran from 2002-4 at the Appollo Victoria Theatre – where the current production of the stage show musical, ‘Wicked’ currently plays.
Ghatak also also talked about another non-musical role in ‘The Father and The Assassin’ – a National Theatre play by Indian playwright Anupama Chandrasekhar, which pits Indian independence leader MK Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi) against his assassin Nathuram Godse.
Growing up, Ghatak’s passion was always the arts but like any good Asian boy with professional parents – his father is doctor, his mother, a teacher – there was another pull.
“My interests were always equally split between the performing arts and medical sciences and I trained as an oestopath but my heart wasn’t in it – I couldn’t do it every day.”
Oesteopathy’s loss has been Art’s gain – and he’s been at the very top and smashed some Representation barriers. He is an undoubted success story and an inspiration to others.
Main picture: Carmen Ghia (Raj Ghatak) and Roger DeBris (Trevor Ashley) Pic: ©ManuelHarlan
Other pictures, please see: @RajGhatak
Listing
‘The Producers’ by Mel Brooks booking until September 19 2026 – The Garrick Theatre, 2 Charing Cross Rd, London WC2H 0HH
