BENGALURU: Two-inch fungus on a few chairs, leaking bathroom, Green Room with a caved in roof, broken chairs, death traps everywhere. This was the state of K H Kala Soudha, when Varshini Vijay and other members of Prabath Auditoriums opened the doors of the soudha, a few months ago. The soudha, located in Hanumanthnagar, which was shut for almost one-and- halfyears now, is all set to open doors for the artistes from this month end. Twenty-four-year-old Varshini Vijay who bagged the contract to manage the Soudha, is all excited about it. Renovation works are almost completed and Soudha will be ready to host the shows soon, Varshini says.
“It was a sloppy place when we opened the doors,” recalls Varshini. “But now, we are taking utmost care to make hygiene and security a priority at the Soudha. Stage and proscenium have been changed, carpeting and control room have been redone; we have bought sounds, lights and other essential equipment to make it look like a state-of- theart auditorium,” Varshini adds. Soudha was supposed to be inaugurated on November 11 but was postponed because of delay in supply of electricity, which was cut-off when the auditorium was shut. “We cannot run shows without electricity. We have written to the authorities concerned to waive off arrears and provide electricity. It should be done by the month end after which we shall keep the Soudha running,” Varshini says. Varshini is planning to invite all the artistes to have a look at the Soudha, before official inauguration. “I want them to tell us how they liked it, which is very important for us,” she says. Soudha is being renovated at a cost of Rs 40 lakh approximately. Varshini says they haven’t fixed the rent of the auditorium yet but it will be akin to that of what was being charged before – around 5,000.
Hailing from the artistic family of Prabhath, Varshini took up performing harikatha a traditional form of storytelling at the age of 15. She has a diploma in storytelling from the university of Edinburgh. For the last 4 years Varshini has been curating KEA Prabhath Rangamandira and Prabhath Kalapoornima and now Kala Soudha. For the past two years she is an actor with Wemove Theatre and has worked in the productions.
‘STATE OF GOVT AUDITORIUMS PATHETIC’
Varshini says, government, which spends a lot of money to construct auditoriums, doesn’t maintain them properly. “Recently I was performing at Kala Grama. The chairs were broken, bathroom was clogged and Green Room was in pathetic state. Most of the government auditoriums aren’t aesthetically viable. When we took up the tender to renovate Kalasoudha, it was going to the ruins,” Varshini recalls.