Vijayawada: Novelty panacea for ailing theatre, says director Bhaskar Chandra

Vijayawada: "I have started my stage career 46 years ago with greatest passion and vigour. Though the world is taking many changes according to the updating technology and public interests, surprisingly the Telugu drama has not changed right from the beginning of my career till now. Still I don't have an answer why the promoters are not choosing new concepts. In a lighter way, I think a medicine should be invented for improvement of Telugu theatre just like medicine for Corona," said Akurati Bhaskar Chandra, a noted writer, director and actor.

While discussing about the trends in Telugu theatre with 'The Hans India' he opined that the public are paying interest to watch good dramas. But the lacuna is with the artistes and production organizations. He recollected his memories about the Odessa theatre and said that while working in Odessa, Bhaskar Chandra went to a drama and was surprised to see the audience watching with their families with children. But even today Telugu drama is pulling only 50 plus age audience. Even youngsters are not showing interest to watch the Telugu plays. Telugu theatre should seriously think for attracting the youth and children to the auditorium.

According to Bhaskar Chandra, the organizers should have to change their vision according to the tunes of the audience while selecting concepts, using good technical inputs and music to attract all sections of audience. He felt that good publicity will also pay more results in bringing the crowds to the theatre. "Another area where the dramas are not having enough success records is auditoria. In most of the places we have open air auditoria, where the technical plays will never get attracted by audience," opened the writer and director Bhaskar Chandra.

Replying to a question Bhaskar Chandra said that many enthusiastic teams making dramas and writers are also searching for plots to get prizes in the drama competitions. He further added that the writers, directors and organizations are fixed in the frame of parishad. They are not moving for innovative concepts.

He quoted one incident which took place while producing a play titled "Susheela" based on a story written during 1920. "The language and diction are entirely different to the present but I took it as a challenge to take the audience to the past. In fact, I don't know how the audience receives that experiment. Even the artistes are also not happy to pronounce that diction. All are in tension till the first performance is completed. It was a big hit. Audience and critics accepted that experiment with feel. I request the production makers to do some story-based dramas as we have enough number of stories both in contemporary and also in epics," said Bhaskar Chandra.

"Only with new and novel scripts with innovation, stage play will attract the crowds to the auditorium. It is a fight between theatre and hundreds of TV Channels as well as social media channels. It is the duty of the theatre persons to safeguard the entity of drama. Hoping for the best after COVID-19," said Bhaskar Chandra.