How would it be if i describe my life being wound by art like an ANACONDA? Gosh!! scary?
Well, left to me i would have described art and my life as a blend of whiskey and soda with the applause of tinkling ice cubes but for the frowning eyebrows of Bacchus(wine God) detractors.
Well i think it can be decently termed as a JUGALBANDHI of creativity.
All said and done, for some strange reason my life was and is entwined with not just one but many forms of art.
Starting from applying the grease paint(make up) in my 7th year for the silver jubilee hit film PANDANTI KAPURAM to penning my first piece of literature in my primary school in my 5th standard and receiving the honour of having it published in the high school annual souvenir of PADMA SESHADRI BALA BHAVAN SCHOOL to my brief exposure to classical dance (BHATATHA NATYAM)and folk dance as a part of basic training programme for my film career to car and motor bike racing in which i bagged my first cup at the age of 17 at the SHOLAVARAM RACE TRACK IN Chennai are only a few.
STAGE and DRAMA have flirted with my life on and off from a very tender age of 11 when the neighborhood kids and i floated a troupe and i scripted comedy plays acted and produced them.
Much to our glee they were received well by the audience(mostly parents and neighbours) and ran to packed houses. Our family office building housed the auditorium and our film company's store room was a treasure house of makeup and costume material. We even collected 25paise as ticket money and shared the booty after the shows.
But the bonding of a lifetime with the stage started with my mentor and guru late sri JANDHYALA the legendary playwright and stage actor who later turned into a highly successful film script writer and a movie director who mostly made super hit comedies and carries the title HASYA BRAMHA(the god of comedy). Though he was later married to films, he never deserted his first love, THE STAGE.
memories of evenings when we were exposed to local troupes enacting their awesome plays when we were shooting in different towns and cities like RAJAMUNDRYand VISHKAPATNAM
haunt my mind . It was almost a ritual and in the process he injected the THEATRE into my veins like cocaine. It was during these times that i met stalwarts like SATHYANAND of vishaka and others who induced creativity by means of dialogues, sets, special effects and performances. He called the theatre the mother and true to his words most of talents he introduced on silver and small screen are the children of theatre.
The word SPECIAL EFFECTS in ANDHRA THEATRE scenario will automatically glide one's mind to SURABHI. An ancient theatre troupe born about a hundred years back in the village of SURABHI in Cuddapah district in the RALAYA SEEMA region of ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA
primarily with the objective of entertaining and inculcating Morales into a young princess who was widowed at a tender age(child marriages was widely practiced those days) transformed into a troupe which trained its guns on mesmerising the audience with special effects and narration.
Even today they are a force to reckon with in spite of the domination of films and electronic media.
I am witness to their expertise and touched the feet of their master when i saw their play SHIRIDI SAI , in which a king cobra appears from nowhere and suddenly SHIRIDI SAI strikes his sataka(wand) to create a fire. though its done with lighting and puppetry effects, the thought, pains taken and the end result is AMMMAAAZZING. Don't miss a chance if you get one , to see this masterpiece.
As a film actor, though i have gained formidable reputation and fans, apart from several awards
i humbly admit that i wouldn't pass the muster as a stage actor. Memory power, body language,
above all the guts perform to live audience is all together another thing . There will not be retakes like in films.
You are finished once you flounder. A creative nightmareof sorts. Yet the inborn fire for this amazing form of art fanned by my guru JANDHYALA continues to rage in me.
After the demise of my guru there was a brief lull in my love story with stage but a strange twist of destiny brought me back face to face with theatre and much more, thanks to the land of my destiny,ANANTHAPUR.
With the actors of a street play in
Puttaparthi town in Ananthapur
district.
When i faced a crushing defeat in the parliament elections people thought i would leave this land soaked in history and art apart from poverty, famine and blood due to FACTIONS(warring groups fighting for supremacy and survival). But my love for this land once ruled by EMPEROR KRISHNA DEVA RAYA 500 years back is deeper than skin deep political gains.
The emperor apart from being a great warrior patronised art with a large heart. An author himself
who wrote books like AMUKTHA MAALYADHA encouraged authors, artistes and arts and these arts which were born in that land survived famine, cultural and political onslaughts and have reached the present generation andare limping forward to survive.
I will treat you to a salad of these exoctic arts soon But the fact remains that the theatre of Anantapur district in spite of its glory and substance is struggling to see daylight due to lack of encouragement from the government and lack of exposture.
Hence the focus of this post is on the theatre and the need for the attention on this segment.
It was at this juncture that i had decided to form an organisation for the welfare of ARTISES AND ARTS and so my organisation, KALAAKARULA AIKYA VEDHIKA (a forum for artistes and arts) was born with the tagline RENAISANCE OF ART.
An organisation which gospels an often neglected truth that IF THE ARTISTES LIVE, THE ARTS WILL SURVIVE today boasts of a membership of 19,000(ninteen thousand) families in Anantapur district alone can be deemed as the largest of its kind in the nation.
Nearly 10,000(ten thousand) families have benifitted from this organisation which was founded in the 2010(just three years back) and spread like wild fire due to its philosophy and transperency.
Me as Emperor Krishna Deva Raya in the play VIJAYA BHAVANAM during the state celebr-
tions of 500th year of the coronation of SRI KRISHNA DEVA RAYA.
Coming back to theatre, the moment of my crowning glory as a lover and a patron of theatre came when I was asked to play the role of Emperor Sri Krishna Deva Raya in the play VIJAYA BHAVANAM(the seceretariat of VIJAYA NAGARAM EMPIRE) and my joy knew no bounds when the coronation scene was on, there was a gust of strong wind and rain poured from nowhere.
The ministers and the crowd stood up and applauded and said SRIKRISHN-
A DEVA RAYA is back. Tears rolled down my eyes and my heart whispered to my stunned mind,
THE RENAISANNCE OF ART is back. I was then the cultural adviser for the programme to the government
The government order for the road up the hill to PENUGONDA FORT which i trekked with thousands of people for the first time was released from my hands due to the good omen.
VIJYABHAVANAM(HINDUPUR) which houses my residence and the head quarters of
KALAAARULA AIKYA VEDHIKA(my N.G.O.)
AHEM!! Now coming back to theatre and arts,to be precise my romance with arts can be mirrored as a thirsty butterfly in a nectar garden hopfully hopping from flower to flower in a quest to quench its eternal thirst.Theatre is only a tip of the iceberg. I shall take you to a vibgyor trip on the rainbow of arts especially from the forgotten empire in times to come .
KALA PRANAM
NARESH.VK
Well, left to me i would have described art and my life as a blend of whiskey and soda with the applause of tinkling ice cubes but for the frowning eyebrows of Bacchus(wine God) detractors.
Well i think it can be decently termed as a JUGALBANDHI of creativity.
All said and done, for some strange reason my life was and is entwined with not just one but many forms of art.
Starting from applying the grease paint(make up) in my 7th year for the silver jubilee hit film PANDANTI KAPURAM to penning my first piece of literature in my primary school in my 5th standard and receiving the honour of having it published in the high school annual souvenir of PADMA SESHADRI BALA BHAVAN SCHOOL to my brief exposure to classical dance (BHATATHA NATYAM)and folk dance as a part of basic training programme for my film career to car and motor bike racing in which i bagged my first cup at the age of 17 at the SHOLAVARAM RACE TRACK IN Chennai are only a few.
STAGE and DRAMA have flirted with my life on and off from a very tender age of 11 when the neighborhood kids and i floated a troupe and i scripted comedy plays acted and produced them.
Much to our glee they were received well by the audience(mostly parents and neighbours) and ran to packed houses. Our family office building housed the auditorium and our film company's store room was a treasure house of makeup and costume material. We even collected 25paise as ticket money and shared the booty after the shows.
But the bonding of a lifetime with the stage started with my mentor and guru late sri JANDHYALA the legendary playwright and stage actor who later turned into a highly successful film script writer and a movie director who mostly made super hit comedies and carries the title HASYA BRAMHA(the god of comedy). Though he was later married to films, he never deserted his first love, THE STAGE.
memories of evenings when we were exposed to local troupes enacting their awesome plays when we were shooting in different towns and cities like RAJAMUNDRYand VISHKAPATNAM
haunt my mind . It was almost a ritual and in the process he injected the THEATRE into my veins like cocaine. It was during these times that i met stalwarts like SATHYANAND of vishaka and others who induced creativity by means of dialogues, sets, special effects and performances. He called the theatre the mother and true to his words most of talents he introduced on silver and small screen are the children of theatre.
The word SPECIAL EFFECTS in ANDHRA THEATRE scenario will automatically glide one's mind to SURABHI. An ancient theatre troupe born about a hundred years back in the village of SURABHI in Cuddapah district in the RALAYA SEEMA region of ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA
primarily with the objective of entertaining and inculcating Morales into a young princess who was widowed at a tender age(child marriages was widely practiced those days) transformed into a troupe which trained its guns on mesmerising the audience with special effects and narration.
Even today they are a force to reckon with in spite of the domination of films and electronic media.
I am witness to their expertise and touched the feet of their master when i saw their play SHIRIDI SAI , in which a king cobra appears from nowhere and suddenly SHIRIDI SAI strikes his sataka(wand) to create a fire. though its done with lighting and puppetry effects, the thought, pains taken and the end result is AMMMAAAZZING. Don't miss a chance if you get one , to see this masterpiece.
As a film actor, though i have gained formidable reputation and fans, apart from several awards
i humbly admit that i wouldn't pass the muster as a stage actor. Memory power, body language,
above all the guts perform to live audience is all together another thing . There will not be retakes like in films.
You are finished once you flounder. A creative nightmareof sorts. Yet the inborn fire for this amazing form of art fanned by my guru JANDHYALA continues to rage in me.
After the demise of my guru there was a brief lull in my love story with stage but a strange twist of destiny brought me back face to face with theatre and much more, thanks to the land of my destiny,ANANTHAPUR.
Puttaparthi town in Ananthapur
district.
When i faced a crushing defeat in the parliament elections people thought i would leave this land soaked in history and art apart from poverty, famine and blood due to FACTIONS(warring groups fighting for supremacy and survival). But my love for this land once ruled by EMPEROR KRISHNA DEVA RAYA 500 years back is deeper than skin deep political gains.
The emperor apart from being a great warrior patronised art with a large heart. An author himself
who wrote books like AMUKTHA MAALYADHA encouraged authors, artistes and arts and these arts which were born in that land survived famine, cultural and political onslaughts and have reached the present generation andare limping forward to survive.
I will treat you to a salad of these exoctic arts soon But the fact remains that the theatre of Anantapur district in spite of its glory and substance is struggling to see daylight due to lack of encouragement from the government and lack of exposture.
Hence the focus of this post is on the theatre and the need for the attention on this segment.
It was at this juncture that i had decided to form an organisation for the welfare of ARTISES AND ARTS and so my organisation, KALAAKARULA AIKYA VEDHIKA (a forum for artistes and arts) was born with the tagline RENAISANCE OF ART.
An organisation which gospels an often neglected truth that IF THE ARTISTES LIVE, THE ARTS WILL SURVIVE today boasts of a membership of 19,000(ninteen thousand) families in Anantapur district alone can be deemed as the largest of its kind in the nation.
Nearly 10,000(ten thousand) families have benifitted from this organisation which was founded in the 2010(just three years back) and spread like wild fire due to its philosophy and transperency.
Me as Emperor Krishna Deva Raya in the play VIJAYA BHAVANAM during the state celebr-
tions of 500th year of the coronation of SRI KRISHNA DEVA RAYA.
Coming back to theatre, the moment of my crowning glory as a lover and a patron of theatre came when I was asked to play the role of Emperor Sri Krishna Deva Raya in the play VIJAYA BHAVANAM(the seceretariat of VIJAYA NAGARAM EMPIRE) and my joy knew no bounds when the coronation scene was on, there was a gust of strong wind and rain poured from nowhere.
The ministers and the crowd stood up and applauded and said SRIKRISHN-
A DEVA RAYA is back. Tears rolled down my eyes and my heart whispered to my stunned mind,
THE RENAISANNCE OF ART is back. I was then the cultural adviser for the programme to the government
Flanked with minister sre N.Raghuvira reddy m.p Ananta venkatarami reddy collector sri Janardhan reddy, mla, and others. (note the folded pants of the minister due to heavy rain).
The government order for the road up the hill to PENUGONDA FORT which i trekked with thousands of people for the first time was released from my hands due to the good omen.
It was in this emotional moment that named my house which i was building in HINDUPUR
as VIJAYABHAVANAM after the secerteriat of Krishna Deva Raya
symbolically depicting the renaisance of art.
KALAAARULA AIKYA VEDHIKA(my N.G.O.)
AHEM!! Now coming back to theatre and arts,to be precise my romance with arts can be mirrored as a thirsty butterfly in a nectar garden hopfully hopping from flower to flower in a quest to quench its eternal thirst.Theatre is only a tip of the iceberg. I shall take you to a vibgyor trip on the rainbow of arts especially from the forgotten empire in times to come .
KALA PRANAM
NARESH.VK
