THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: “All these years, I had made it a habit to call up fellow artists and offer them ‘Vishu kaineettam’. But not this time,” said Kannur Vasootty, director of several acclaimed plays and winner of several awards, including that of the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi. The veteran director is one of the many in the theatre profession hit hard by the COVID-19 lockdown. Theatre groups and artists, who mostly have a hand-to-mouth existence, have been enduring difficult times as their only source of income has dried up.
Theatres have long been the torch bearers of Kerala’s socio-cultural Renaissance. But lately, they are in troubled waters as patronage and sponsorships have dwindled. Yet, many of the drama groups, popularly called ‘troupes’, stay afloat thanks to the painstaking efforts of veterans like Vasootty and fellow drama aficionados. Though they lack the fat purses of their cine counterparts, people like Vasootty channelise resources which help the troupes survive.
However, the theatre groups are now faced with an existential threat. With a sizeable part of the temple festival season in the state (March to April) now gone, the troupes are staring at financial ruination. The back-to-back flood in 2018 and 2019 had dealt a crippling blow to the theatre sector. And the Covid pandemic now is seen as the death knell. “Once the pandemic ebbs, life will become normal. It will take time, but normalcy will be restored. But for theatres, there won’t be any redemption.
They are already on the brink of ruination and I doubt whether the sector can ride out these hard times,” Vasootty said. Vasootty runs ‘Samskrithi’ which had performed ‘Jeevitha Padam’ on 125 stages before the pandemic struck. Of these, 50-odd performances were for ‘competitions’ and hence fetched poor returns. Vasootty was looking forward to staging the play at 75 more venues, which would have brought in around Rs 7.5 lakh. And the amount would have enabled him to offset the expenses.
A professional drama troupe has to spend on an average Rs12 lakh on each drama. The rehearsal and camps last an entire month. With not much profit in the offing, financiers are least interested in putting their money and the onus falls on veteran artists like Vasootty to chip in. Vasootty said his previous producer had backed off and he had to borrow money from his two sons, who are working. Even if the lockdown is lifted by May, there is little hope of any festivals or stage programmes being held later that month.