Raell Padamsee

Raell Padamsee
Raell Padamsee
Born	Mumbai, India
Occupation	Actor, director, producer, writer
Years active	1985–present

Raell Padamsee is an Indian theatre personality and CEO & Managing Director of ACE Productions & Numero Uno Productions. The SoBo theater veteran, is the daughter of renowned ad film maker Alyque Padamsee and late Pearl Padamsee.

Personal life

Raell grew up at Belha Terrace, which was designed like a theatre, in Mumbai, India. At a very early age of 15, she set foot in acting; at the age of 16, she directed her first production – Duet for One – and started her first production company Magnum Productions (which is now known as ACE Productions) when she was 19 years of age. She completed her graduation from H.R. College of Commerce and Economics.

Career

Adult Theatre

Till date, Raell has directed and produced more than 25 adult plays.

Name of the play	Written by	Raell's role	Year
Duet for One	Tom Kempinski	Producer	1985
Measures Taken	Brecht	Producer	1987
Antigone	Jean Annouilh	Producer	1987
Interpreters	Ronald Harwood	Director and producer	1988–89
Extremeties	William Mastrosimone	Director and producer	1989
Miss Julie August	Strindberg	Producer	1990
Godspell 1	Jean Michel Tebelak	Producer	1991
Les LiasonsDangeureuse	Christopher Hampton	Producer	1991–92
Tara	Mahesh Dattani	Producer	1991
Rumors	Neil Simon	Director and producer	1991–92
Acts of Faith	Marilyn Felt	Producer	1997–98
Betrayal	Harold Pinter	Producer	1999
Hello! I Love You	James Saunders	Director and producer	1999
The Lover	Harold Pinter	Director and producer	1999
Laughing Wild	Christopher Durang	Producer	2001
Macbeth	William Shakespeare	Producer	2006
Murder on the menu	Adaptation	Producer	2008
Noises off	Michael Frayn	Producer	2008
Freedom	Kamala Ramchandani and Raell Padamsee	Writer and producer	2009
Broken Images	Girish Karnad	Producer	2009
The Game	Adapted by Bacchi Karkaria	Producer	2010
The Sound of Music	Rodgers & Hammerstein	Producer	2011
Grease-The Musical	Jacobs & Casey	Producer	2013
Unfaithfully Yours	Adapted by Anita Sarkar	Director and producer	2014–present
Jesus Christ Superstar	Andrew Lloyd Webber	Producer	2014–15
Mahatma – Come find the Gandhi in You	Krishna Thakkar	Director and producer	2015
Knock Knock Who's There	Krishna Thakkar	Producer	2016

Child Theatre and Workshops

Apart from adult theatre, Raell has directed and produced several successful children's plays. In 2015, through her spectacular mega musical production – Mahatma, they paid a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi. The musical involved 300 children from mainstream schools as well as from schools run by eight different NGOs.

Raell started theatre workshops for kids as an alternative to The Trinity College London. Her workshops focus on making theatre come alive for the Indian kids. She has developed ACE (ACADEMY for CREATIVE EXPRESSION) speech and drama course which works on personality enhancement and gives children the opportunity to perform on stage from the age of four. They then go on to be a part of the ACE Talent Academy, where she gives them the opportunity to showcase their talent through cinema, theatre and television. One of the kids, Tanay Chheda, from the ACE Academy was cast in Oscar-winning movie – Slumdog Millionaire.^[6] She is currently running her speech and drama workshops at 40 centers all over Mumbai.

Raell is also the managing trustee of the Create Foundation, that believes in integrating children from different backgrounds & providing them a common platform.^[7]

The Edge Academy

Raell Padamsee has also started The Edge Academy. The theatre director felt the need for improvisation in soft skills and presentation skills possessed by several corporate honchos she interacted with. The certified courses at the Academy are tailored to meet all different levels of management, including the hospitality industry, BPOs, businesses etc. who want to improve their own image or that of their company.^[8] The faculty of the academy includes Alyque Padamsee and Sabira Merchant.

Numero Uno Productions

Apart from ACE and The Edge Academy, Raell Padamsee also owns Numero Uno Productions Pvt Ltd. This company focuses on bringing International talent to India. The production company recently brought supernatural entertainer Lior Suchard to India, where he wowed the Mumbai audiences with his abilities.^[9]