The Film, TV and Theatre Development Corporation in association with the Department of Culture and the Cultural Council recently celebrated Telugu theatre day, marking the birth anniversary of Kandukuri Veeresalingam, said to have written the first Telugu play some 130 years ago, and also the vardhanti of great thespian Bellari Raghava.
In the morning a group of theatre artistes and officials went in a procession to the Tank Bund and garlanded the statues of both these stalwarts.
In the evening they held a huge function at Ravindra Bharati to felicitate the chosen elite of the stage for the years 2009 and 2010, with cash awards of Rs. 25,000 each, a certificate and a shawl. The awards were given away by C. Partha Sarathi IAS, M. Kantha Rao IPS and R.V. Ramanamurthy, heads of these organising departments.
The 2009 year awardees were C.V.K. Rao a noted parishat organiser and actor; Desiraju Hanumantha Rao, a model actor and director for creating experimental plays like Hush Kaki , Rudraveena and Kukka and so on; theatre guru of present-day artistes like Kota Srinivasa Rao, Subbaraya Sarma, L.B. Sriram and many others; A.V. Subbarao, known for mythological roles of Srikrishna, Srirama figuring in innumerable plays; Vanam Lakshmikantha Rao, noted thespian and Pavala (Neti) Syamala, specially known for her colloquial expression of Vizag belt, especially in the play Koduku Puttala .
For the year 2010, the awardees were Ayyadevara Purushothama Rao known for mythological roles and for running C.S.R. Kalamandiram; P. Nageswara Rao, playwright, actor and director; Aveti Nageswari Devi (widow of great thespian Surabhi Shyam Sunder), well-known artiste of the Surabhi theatre and specially known for the roles of Sasirekha, Erukala Sani and Chintamani; T.R. Adabala and actor for 30 years and specialist in makeup art with a record of four thousand characters; and Patibanda Ananda Rao, a well-known writer of many popular plays like Padamati Gaali . He recently penned a play on Ambedkar.
The ceremony was followed by a children's play Bukki presented by Brahmam Talent High School.
This won the best production award in the recent Nandi Natakotsavam in the newly-introduced section for children's plays. It is a message-oriented satirical play depicting how corporate schools overburden children with bag-loads of books, leaving no scope for children to relax.
They also collect huge sums from parents, pestering them to attend to their wards' homework and converting them into money-making machines.
The play created half a dozen main characters, young and old, all played by children.
The climax showed how the title character Bukki (the name obviously derived out of ‘bookish') runs away from her home, unable to stand the constant pressure of doing her homework and the tantrums thrown by her mother. Her grandfather, a friend Subba Rao, a teacher and her police constable father were the other important roles. The play was well-handled. All the child artistes gave well-knit performances.
