Nagpur needs more halls dedicated to theatre

As the four-day Kalarang Natya Utsav kick-starts in Nagpur as a part of which six celebrity Marathi plays are all set to get staged at the Dr Vasantrao Deshpande Hall, city theatre aficionados are definitely in for a wonderful theatrical treat. However, equally excited to perform here, the popular Marathi theatre actors expressed their concerns on various issues pertaining to theatre on the first day of the fest, predominantly the need for more theatre auditoriums in city...
Need of the hour
Marathi celebs who shall be performing in the city, strongly feel that it is high time city gets more halls which are exclusively dedicated to theatre. Seasoned Marathi actor Dilip Prabhavalkar shares, “I have performed in Nagpur many times before and it is like a homecoming for me. Audience here is also very appreciative. But one thing that really bothers me is the fact that in a progressive city like Nagpur, there is dearth of good auditoriums. There should be at least two more halls. It is an important issue which needs an immediate attention.” Voicing the similar concern, Marathi actor Arun Nalawade says, “On multiple occasions, it has happened that whenever we tried booking Deshpande hall which is supposed to be better than many others in the city for our plays, it was already occupied. With fewer options available, we do not get proper hall in Nagpur. So, city urgently needs some more theatre auditoriums.”
Apathy towards theatre
Though there is a dearth of auditoriums currently, the construction of few more halls in Nagpur is underway like Vidarbha Sahitya Sangh’s Dhanwatey Rang Mandir and Suresh Bhat auditorium which is being readied by the NMC. But the pace at which they are being constructed is what has irked veteran Marathi theatre artiste Prashant Damle. He says, “I want to know when the Dhanwatey Rang Mandir will be completely ready, as its construction is going on since 1986. Also, Suresh Bhat auditorium has a huge seating capacity of around 2500 which is of no use to us; there should not be more than 900 seats for staging of a play.” To this, actress Sonali Kulkarni adds, “These huge auditoriums are deemed fit for the musical concerts and not for staging of plays.”
Spotlight on other issues
Besides the dearth of theatre venues, Prashant also emphasised on other grave issues, which he wants relevant authorities to pay heed to. He says, “Keeping Deshpande Hall closed — which is the prefered choice of many theatre artistes — during the winter session is wrong. At least on Sundays it should be made available.” He goes on to add, “While green rooms have been made better and chairs are repaired now, the problems like bad acoustics as well as poor air-conditioned system still persist in this hall.”