Wish to make a difference with plays

Srikanth Chary Banala, a software professional working for Infosys, has been creating awareness among people through his plays in ‘Manch Theatre Group’, which was started in 2004. Till now he has written and directed more than 20 plays. He is staging a play ‘Bhavitha’ on March 5 at Lamakaan as part of the forthcoming Women’s Day.

“I was born and brought up in Hyderabad. Since my childhood, I love to watch plays. Most of the plays I watched in Hyderabad are in English and Hindi. At that time I decided to stage Telugu plays. With my interest in plays, I joined Manch Theatre Group in Infosys, in 2013 and I acted in various plays. After acting in many English and Hindi plays, I started writing scripts for Telugu plays in Telangana dialect. Till now I did more than 50 plays in acting, writing and directing,” says Srikanth.

Speaking of his plays which are on social issues, Srikanth says, “In my words theatre will create a thought in the audience about the society. Many of my plays are born out of the problems that people are facing today in society. One of my plays, ‘Shakti Neelone Undhi’ explains about the domestic violence. ‘Chai Edi Be’ explains the importance of joint families.

‘Nuvvu Chavali’ is a play that explains about the dangers of drunk and driving. I wrote this play after the incident in which 10-year-old Ramya died at Panjagutta recently due to drunk-driving. I felt very bad about the incident and I decided to bring awareness among people about it and I staged the play.”

He was also applauded by actor and writer Tanikella Bharani for staging Tanikella Bharani’s script as a play ‘Gaardabhaandam’ in Telugu. “We met Tanikella Bharani and he gave us a book of plays and we staged the play ‘Gaardabhaandam’ from it,” he adds. His play, ‘Chai Edi Be’ has been selected and staged in the recently concluded ‘Telangana Yuva Natakostavam’ theatre festival at Ravindra Bharati.

Sharing about his future plays and plans, Srikanth informs, “Presently, I’m working on a play ‘Bhavitha’, which will be staged on March 5 at Lamakaan as a part of the Women’s Day. I wrote this play after the incident of the murder of a software professional in Pune recently. The play is completely women-oriented. Through this play, I want to show that there is no life for anyone without women.

The play is a story of a woman and her baby girl,” “I will try to gather audiences for Telugu plays through my plays. In future I will also write more plays in Telangana dialect to revive Telugu plays,” he concludes.

By V Sateesh Reddy