Fri, Sep 12, 2014 | 7.30pm
in Kala Soudha
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Sun, Oct 5, 2014 | 7.30pm
in Kalagrama (Blore Univ)
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The Story of our Hosabelaku

For the first time in the history of Kannada theatre, a theatre presentation conceptualized with reference to a novel and a movie.  We at Prakasam want to make this effort to create new audiences for Kannada Theater.  With main objective of increasing audiences to Kala Soudha, our theatre space this production did more than that by building a brand for the space for entertaining theatre.

Vani, first generation of feminist writers of her time, originally wrote the story. Many of her novels have been made into huge banner productions like Yeradu Kanasu, Shubhamangala, Avala Bhagya etc. Hosabelaku was first printed in 1969 and was adapted into the huge silver screen hit starring Dr. Rajkumar & Saritha in 1982. The movie was adapted by the director duo Dorai and Bhagwan, who made this female-oriented story into a hero-oriented movie, suiting the image of Dr. Rajkumar at that time.

We had intensive discussions after watching the movie and reading the novel before arriving at a stage version of these two masterpieces. This has helped us achieve a balance between what happens in the movie and what is in the novel. We are all set to entertain with this new experiment of ours. Chandan Shankar and our director are working together on the script, which is contemporary and modern.

Directors Note

What I have noted largely in the past five years is that there is a fixed set of audiences for both Kannada & English theatre productions. Wherever there is a production we have the same set of audiences watching the play at different venues and more than 70% of the audience is repeated. This is not an encouraging development for healthy theatre, as we are not adding new audiences. This also stands out as the main difference between theatre in Bangalore and in other theatre-rich cities. As an old school theatre enthusiast, just mentioning or discussing this point was not enough for me. I felt a need and desire to do something about bringing back the masses into theatre. I was once advised by an avid theater lover who quoted "other large theatre groups are staging the same old Shakespeare, Karnad, Karanth and the likes. Why cant anyone or even you for that matter bring in a change??"  My discussions with various theatre groups and eminent personalities led me to figure out a way for myself.

My friends and volunteers got together to bring out the initial draft of the story. This was followed by lengthy discussions to come out with a storyline, which would not compromise what was shown in the movie or what was written in the book. I am sure that the final product is going to concentrate on entertainment and on creating new audiences for Kannada theatre.

P D Sathish Chandra