B v karanth biography of mahatma gandhi
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Kannada chronicles: BV Karanth lives on: 600th show of Sattavara Neralu
When BV Karanth directed Sattavara Neralu in 1974, making it a musical, effectively adapting keerthanes of , the crowd at was overwhelmed. There were as many people outside disappointed about not getting ticket than inside, who were feeling blessed. It was sheer magic. Something Kannada theatre had never witnessed before. The stage, songs, lighting, acting, costumes, everything about the play was avant-garde. And of course, the uncompromising critiquing of a religious institution. It made history.
BENAKA, the theatre group, staged the 600th performance of the same play today at . And the auditorium was packed
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“Theatre was something that I had always wanted to pursue. I had joined the National School of Drama (NSD) on the persuasion of BV Karanth (film director and playwright known for his works in Kannada theatre). Money was never my concern. My requirements have always been minimal,” he says.
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In 1975, Prasanna graduated from the NSD and returned to Bengaluru to found Samudaya, one of the largest theatre movements for workers in south India. Prasanna says the movement can be compared with the Jana Natya Manch started in 1972 by slain theatre artist Safdar Hashmi.
“The difference lies in the fact that the radical theatre movement started by Hashmi in Delhi worked like a cultural group of Left parties, while Samudaya had its branches in the backward regions of Karnataka and Hyderabad,” he says.
Prasanna recalls that during the Emergency, he used theatre to protest against the government.
While Prasanna is often referred to as a Gandhian, he says he would not want himself to be called that.“Unfortunately, the period is best known for the imposition of the
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