Akhil Bhartiya Marathi Natya Parishad to fete 16 theatre artists of Vid

NAGPUR: Akhil Bhartiya Marathi Natya Parishad, Nagpur will be celebrating the Marathi Theatre day on November 5 by giving prizes in memory of luminaries of Marathi theatre to upcoming artists in the Vidarbha region. Giving details, secretary of the organization Naresh Gadekar said, “This year, we have decided to recognize sixteen young theatre persons to encourage their talent and also to promote Marathi theatre.”
The event will be held at Baburao Dhanwatey Sabhagruha at 6pm.Sandip Joshi, leader of the ruling party in NMC will present the awards. “Besides providing encouragement to the young artists, by instituting the awards in the name of well known persons of Marathi theatre we are also making an effort to recognize their contribution,” Gadekar said. Marathi theatre traces its history back to 1843 when Vishnudas Bhave first staged the drama ‘Sita Swayamwar’ at Sangli.
The awards are given every alternate year. In 2015, eleven artists were presented with these awards with a certificate, plaque and a shawl. This time eleven male and five female artist from across Vidarbha are being awarded. The names include those of Sarang Maste, Nitin Shegaonkar, Gaurav Khond, Mithun Hatwar, Sachin Giri, Gaurav Parate, Mohan Kalbande, Sushil Sarode, Kishor Battase, Abhishek Bellarwar, Deeplaxmi Bhatt, Sachi Jivne, Pranali Raut, Bhavan Choudhary and Shilpa Shahir. The awards have been instituted in the names of theatre persons like Sapan Mitra, Bhaskar Pande, Vaishali Saraf, Pushpa Kane among others.
Theatre person VS Jog will provide guidance to the upcoming artists. Former president of Akhil Bhartiya Marathi Natak Parishad, Promod Bhusari and current president Prafull Farkase will also be present on the occasion along with Girish Gandhi who will preside over the ceremony.