Saarang theatre festival to begin in Pune on February 25, says Kulkarni, fest incharge

Girish Karnad,a theatre veteran who has significantly contributed to the festival’s success, suggested Saarang as a short form for ‘Sahitya Rangabhoomi Pratishthan’, said Kulkarni

The Vinod Doshi theatre festival will begin a fresh edition of its coveted theatre festival under a fresh title of Saarang Theatre festival at Yeshwantrao chavan auditorium, Kothrud from February 25 to March 1. Ashok Kulkarni, the man in charge of the festival shares insight into the world of theatrics, just weeks prior to the festival.

We hand pick the five plays through word of mouth or reviews and suggestions from friends across India, said Kulkarni. (Ravindra Joshi/HT PHOTO)

Why the name change from Vinod Doshi theatre festival to Saarang theatre festival?

This festival had been under the patronage of Vinod Doshi, the chairman of Premier Automobiles Limited (today known as Premier Ltd) since 2008. His family decided to name it so after his death in association with Premier Ltd to celebrate his passion for theatre by sponsoring an annual five-day theatre festival since October 2008. However, this year in the 11th edition, they withdrew their support and after Parimal and Pramod Chaudhari came on board with their support, we decided to change its name.

What does Saarang stand for?

Girish Karnad,a theatre veteran who has significantly contributed to the festival’s success, suggested Saarang as a short form for ‘Sahitya Rangabhoomi Pratishthan’ established in 2003, with a focus to preserve and promote the arts and the artistes.

Sahitya Rangabhoomi Pratisthan works with the objective to ensure that veteran artistes do not spend their old age in penury. Pratisthan has awarded 50 fellowships to young artists in the field of theatre, literature and the other forms of arts. The awardees are selected from across India.

How is this festival different?

We hand pick the five plays through word of mouth or reviews and suggestions from friends across India. We follow a certain set of rules for the selection process such as plays that have not been performed in Pune, nor is it likely to be staged in near future among others. We try to bring in theatre performed in different languages, this year we a Marathi play titled ‘Davikadun Chauthi Building’, a Tamil play ‘Chandala –Impure’, ‘Chaheta’ a Hindi-Urdu among others. The idea is to expose pune theatre lovers to different forms of theatre across languages.