It’s only a day after the curtain fell on the 17th Bharat Rang Mahotsav, and already, Professor Waman Kendre is dreaming of next year, and the possibilities it can bring. I meet him at Le Meridien’s The One . Its muted but lively ambience quite appropriate. Within minutes, I can recognise the enthusiasm that drives National School of Drama’s director. The scale and success of this year’s Bharat Rang Mahotsav suddenly becomes a little easier to understand.
Two steaming bowls of clear mushroom soup and a Caesar salad in front of us, we settle down to enjoy the winter sun streaming in from the windows, and Kendre expands on his plans. “Hopefully, we can grow even bigger next year, and expand horizontally too.” This edition of the festival saw several new concepts and initiatives, and Kendre hopes that a few can be made permanent. “I want to make the theatre bazaar a permanent fixture. We don’t have a single place where theatre artistes and practitioners can have access to everything they require.” Kendre talks of more plays, of more cities and more venues. He plans to take the festival to other places in Delhi too. “Right now, we are concentrated around the Mandi house area. It’ll be good to if we can find venues in different parts of Delhi too, so that more people can reach the performances.” Next year, Kendre wants more plays from outside the country, and more representation from within it.
While we are still on the topic of the festival, portions of The One’s famous fish and chips arrive, and the delicious aroma, coupled with the fresh fish covered with light, crisp batter, temporarily turns the conversation towards another topic. “I love fish. I’m from Maharashtra, and fish has always been something we ate a lot, and loved too.” He adds though, that what he really enjoys are mutton dishes. “I can cook them too. I actually cook a lot, and love having people over for meals.” This, Kendre adds, is a result of living alone in a small village while pursuing his studies in school.
Born in Daradwadi, a small village in Maharashtra’s Beed district, Kendre absorbed and grew up in a culture of music, dance and drama. “It was always there, the music. We didn’t have groups and troupes that performed shows. Everyone in the village was a part of it. We celebrated with performances.” Kendre’s family had big expectations from him. “My father wanted me to become a big man. And when I did well in studies, I moved to a nearby village to pursue further education in a better school.” It is then that Kendre lived alone in a small one room home, cooking, cleaning and studying alone.
His village, he says, still lacks a proper approach. “In monsoon, the river swells and it is almost entirely cut off from the rest of the world.” This though, hasn’t prevented Kendre from going back several times a year, and better still, organising a Beed festival in his village. “Hundreds of people come to Daradwadi now, Beed performers who arrive despite the difficult approach. It’s a free festival, and it has put my unknown village on the map.”
It’s been a long journey for Kendre, one that is far from over. He’s a treasure trove of ideas, and as we tuck into the last offering — a steaming plate of soft, buttery Amritsari naan and a rich lamb curry — he bounces them around. “Why can’t we broadcast live theatre performances too? Imagine the reach, if the plays performed at the festival could also be seen in real time by people sitting thousands of miles away? Yes, to get the full effect of a play you have to be in the audience, but even if 70 per cent of the experience could be taken to people, wouldn’t that be something?” And then, “We also need to have a theatre museum in this country. We have such a rich theatrical tradition. Every single place has a different theatre, a different style. We haven’t yet got a place that can showcase this rich heritage under one roof.”
Kendre has big plans for the National School of Drama. His dreams, he says, are shared by a wonderful group of colleagues who contribute to a positive vibe. “In the list of best colleges in the world for academics, Indian institutes unfortunately don’t figure anywhere. I want to make sure that when the best theatre institutes are listed, NSD is on the top.”
