About 300 folk and Yakshagana artistes, who came from various parts of state to participate in Nenapinokali, a cultural programme organised to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Ravindra Kalakshetra, were in for an unpleasant surprise on Wednesday morning with the organisers cancelling the event without any notice. The reason cited was inability of Kannada Culture Minister Umashree to attend the programme.
Among those who had to go back disappointed were senior Yakshagana artistes like Chittani Ramachandra Hegde Krishna Yaji Balakur, Kolagi Keshava Hegde and Subrahamanya Navada. The only solace was that they were given the promised remuneration.
The programme on Wednesday was meant to be the first in a series of programmes to mark the anniversary of the cultural landmark of the city. The government has formed a committee to celebrate 50 years of Ravindra Kalakshetra and released Rs.2-crore for the purpose.
“We got a one-line WhatsApp message from the Department of Kannada and Culture late last night that the minister requested to postpone the programme. It was too late to even intimate artistes coming from out of town,” said Srinivas G. Kappanna, who headed the committee formed to organise cultural events.
Some of discontented artists alleged that the programme had been cancelled as the invitation card did not mention the portfolio of Ms. Umashree. There has already been discontentment in the artiste community over delay in modernisisation of the auditorium with state of the art technology because of the differences between Department of Kannada and Culture and Public Works Department.
The Minister was unavailable for comment.
