Rangayana wears a festive look; theatre buffs queue up before ticket counters

Mysuru: The eagerly-awaited Bahuroopi National Theatre Festival took off at Rangayana, a premier theatre repertory, this morning with the inauguration of Film Festival.

This year, it is the 18th Edition of the Festival. The seven-day theatre extravaganza will provide a treat for Mysureans by staging a variety of plays, screening of films and will also highlight folk art culture.

Bahuroopi 2019 will conclude on Jan.18. This year’s festival, with Gender Equality as theme, includes multilingual theatre shows, symposium, Film Fest, Painting and Poster Exhibition, folk performance, Chitra Santhe, Books and Handicrafts Exhibition and a Desi Food Mela.

Thinker, theatre personality, recipient of Gandhi Puraskar and former Rangayana Director Prasanna will formally inaugurate the Theatre Festival at Vanaranga in Rangayana at 6 pm.

District Minister G.T. Devegowda will release a souvenir and Minister for Tourism and Sericulture S.R. Mahesh will inaugurate the Desi Food Mela.

Ramsons Kala Pratishtana Hon. Secretary R.G. Singh will inaugurate the Books and Handicrafts Expo. Former Director, National School of Drama (NSD) Keerti Jain will be the chief guest while Mayor Pushpalatha Jagannath and Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha will be the guests. The event will be presided over by Chamaraja MLA L. Nagendra.

All roads led to Rangayana this morning as theatre and art lovers thronged the premises for the Film Show that was inaugurated at 11 am by actor and theatre personality Ramesh Bhat. The Film Festival was inaugurated at Bhoomigeeta after Bhat pressed a button to screen a three-minute movie. Rangayana Director Bhagirathi Bai Kadam, Joint Director V.N. Mallikarjunaswamy and film critic N. Vidyashankar were present.

So enthusiastic was the crowd that Sriranga, where the movies will be screened, was jam-packed even before the inauguration at Bhoomigeeta. Till 12 noon today, over 150 people had purchased tickets for various plays that will be staged as part of inauguration this evening. Since there is no facility of online booking, people had to stand in queues to get tickets.

The Rangayana campus wore a festive look as over 70 stalls were being filled with exquisite art works, handicrafts, books, traditional clothes and handy items not to mention the food stalls where the mouth-watering Jowar Roti and Yennegai were being prepared.  

Apart from this year’s exclusive Chitra Santhe, on the lines of Karnataka Chitrakala Parishad’s annual Chitra Santhe in Bengaluru, there will be a photo and handicrafts exhibition; on-the-spot pottery making and carving of Channapattana Toys.

Doing their bit for the theatre fest, MCC and MUDA lent vehicles to ferry guests arriving for Bahuroopi from outside destinations. They were taken to different lodges where the rooms were booked.

Rangayana has been organising Bahuroopi Theatre Festival since 2001. Plays from various States and countries have been staged over the years. Amateur theatre troupes have staged their plays since Bahuroopi is reckoned to be a prestigious platform and a launching pad for artistes.