Hyderabad, February 24: He is perhaps one of the most prolific modern playwrights and directors, that Telugu theatre can boast of.
In his 27-year-long career, he has designed and directed 42 plays apart from writing six full-length plays and three short plays.
At 41, Srinivas Denchanala, founder of ‘Janapadam’ theatre repertory, believes in carving a niche for himself.
“Like any other art, theatre is an expression of self and the artist, only then does one think of social change or revolution,” says Srinivas, reminiscing about his early years as a radical leftist.
“I was influenced by leftist authors like Sri Sri and Byragi,” he says adding, “I was also influenced by Walt Whitman and Neruda.”
Born in a small Lambada village near Khammam, Srinivas was always certain of his true calling.
“I worked in the telecom industry for a couple of years but quit my job and joined theatre,” he says.
Impressions of the cultural landscape in his village was a major influence on him during his early years as a playwright.
“It was a conscious decision to be in theatre. Impressions of tribals in my village, my community were a huge influence. Besides, both my parents were also great story-tellers,” he adds. Elaborating on his body of work, Srinivas emphasises his exploration of aesthetics in theatre.
“Earlier I used to do issue-based plays. It was mostly based on land grabbing. I lived and absorbed the core issues that several tribals like Gondi, Lambada and Koya face after touring Adilabad, Khammam and West Godavari districts. Tribals would open up to me about the problems they faced from the government officials and even Naxalites,” says Srinivas.
However, the theatre festival organsied by the the Central Natak Academy in 1985 made him re-think his approach towards theatre and plays.
“It was then I realised that the kind of theatre I was doing lacked aesthetics inspite of the burning topics. Also, I felt the black-and-white characterisations in the plays was very naïve and over-simplistic,” he says.
The director is also not gung-ho about the current state of Telugu theatre. “People talk about courses in Telugu University or Osmania University but really nothing substantial is happening there. Only Central University is doing some good work,” says Srinivas adding, that there has to be a proper cultural policy in the State.
“Theatre should be protected, developed and sustained. There should be an institute in the State solely devoted to theatre. The faculty should consist of experts from several countries and the government should have its own repertory which should perform a wide-range of classic and contemporary plays,” he adds.
States like West Bengal, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh enjoy full government support, adds Srinivas, “The National School of Drama (NSD) spends huge amounts of money on students but after the completion of the course, the students instead go to Mumbai and act in films or television and forget all about the theatre. NSD should make the students sign a two-year bond to make them contribute in some ways to the theatre in the country. Every state should have a NSD branch.”
Good theatre is not commercially viable, believes Srinivas. “It is struggle all the way. I have to approach the government and NGOs for funds, sell tickets on my own and ask for donations,” says the founder of Janapadam, adding that there is a dearth of a thriving theatre milieu in the State.
“The audience should know how to approach theatre. They should be trained,” says Srinivas adding that he wants to bridge the gap between the urban and rural audience.
“I am working towards that but you cannot really categorise the audience in the State,” says Srinivas .
“I want to have an auditorium, performance and training space for my repertory. That would really benefit the kind of work I want to do,” he says on a parting note.
–Agencies