My Article on Kannada Theatre Scene

Kannada Theatre Scene

Ninth Century AD: King Nrupatunga wrote Kavirajamarga in the matured script of Kannada. It is the first recognised literary work by any author in Kannada history. Being a set of poems it was recited to people at numerous literary gatherings. Hence, we could also categorise it as the first script in Kannada literature. Kannada theatre has seen a huge wave of changes from the times of Jaina Works, Vachana Literature, Dasa Sahitya till today's Modern Kannada.

When you go to the new look Ravindra Kalakshetra with improved interiors and exteriors and interact with the Kannada theatre activists, you get the same look and feel, as it was many years back. You still get to see the old scripts, which are, staged every week and meetings/readings going on in the Samsa Open Theatre. However, when you ask them the question of this article "what happened to the new age writers, why are we going back to the age of Shakespeare or of Karnard?" Everyone unanimously agree and argue that there is no original theatre work happening. Nevertheless, no one has a concrete answer for Why?

I clearly remember the days when Ravindra Kalakshetra was bursting centre of Amateur Kannada Theatre activities. Many youngsters used to flock to the theatre to see many big wigs like Shankar Nag, C R Simha and others. The same enthusiasm still prevails in the younger college theatre lovers but where do they disappear? With so many new talents exploring their creativity in theatre field at least we should have on sound writer who can inject freshness and give a new dimension to Kannada theatre, the question is where is he or she?

Theatre is the field where experiments can and are being conducted from the time of its existence. It feeds other mass media like films or TV. When you invest huge sums of money into a movie or a TV serial you would not dare to experiment with that. Of course there are exceptions to this statement and we could sight the example of Ram Gopal Verma's "Bhoot". With such depth and wide-open medium to experiment theatre is the single most important medium of modern day entertainment and communication.

M S Sathyu, had an opinion that there has never been dearth of scripts or writers. He sighted the example of a compilation made in 1964 with 3000 odd original Kannada plays in historical, mythological and other genres. He added that there has been a new trend of converting novels and stories in scripts, which is very healthy to being to light many important Kannada literary works. He supporting this new trend said that there is no original film writing and similarly why cannot you accept the same in Theatre.

Arundathi Nag speaking about this issue felt that "the current theatre scenario is like the chicken and egg situation, this prevails world wide and it's happening to Kannada theatre too. Kitchen garden play readings which took each and every play to households seems to have disappeared". With her ambitious theatre, project "Rangashankara" she plans to create and nurture theatre talents, which fade away without recognition.

Suresh Angalli, Chief NSD RRC had a different viewpoint for this subject. He was very enthusiastic to note the growth of amateur Kannada theatre from times of Kailasam till the modern day Jambay, Akshara, Basavalinggaiah. He stressed on the educational value and the professional touch that adds to theatre. In his own words "in a year there are a minimum of 1000 Kannada theatre productions happening all over the state. Note that this excludes company dramas, religious and folk theatre. With such numbers of productions its clear that there is a direction for Kannada theatre already defined".

The cause of no organisation of Kannada theatre except for exceptions like Rangayana or Neenasam where the artists are paid and looked after with high esteem. If we look at Bengali or Marathi theatre, the artists there are proud to be in theatre circle. It is a full-fledged profession. Kannada theatre dose not have the kind of remunerations which other states artists receive. Venky a veteran Theatre and TV artist had strong opposition on the unprofessional attitude of the Kannada theatre activists. He added "we need organised and collective efforts to keep theatre alive. If a new talent sees no security or clarity of his future in theatre he will definitely look at other avenues like TV or Films".

Creative returns are no more important its financial people are looking at instant returns. This is a proven case at least in the Kannada theatre scene. Arvind S D theatre writer and producer of a well-known youth TV programme, "people need money to live and they can't generate money through theatre. An average script for a daily soap episodes will earn them a minimum of 20 thousand rupees per month, compared to theatre scene where there is no guaranteed returns".

There are many reasons for the sudden dearth of talent. To start with, it is the plays producer or director who has become choosy. More than choosy they look at their comfort level with the script, which is the backbone of his production. Agreeing to this Malatesh Badiger, well known Theatre Director and Designer commented that he wont direct or design a play unless the same has been read for more than three times. If the story after three personal readings holds his interest then he would consider that for screening. Contradicting this view point Sibu Vaz of The Script said, "If we have people who can put up quality plays then there will be quality scripts. Because the scriptwriter needs inspiration form quality directors and actors. I could sight the example of Shakespeare who used to develop his script as he involved himself in the creation of the play".

Concluding, there will always be variations in creativity if you take any language to consideration. I would like to quote Arundathi Nag who commented "We had a huge gamut of inspiration amongst us when we were young, all of us now has to think about us being inspiration to the newer generation". With such right attitudes and mind-sets, Kannada theatre will soon achieve its pinnacle and stay there for a long time.