GUNTUR: A Play with a noble message was tweaked to cater to the interests of the young audience — and perhaps to rake in more moolah. It ended up flaring community passions, forcing the government to ban it. Even after nine months, over 3,500 theatre artists are yet to come to terms with the ban on Chintamani Padya Natakam, the 100-year-old play. The ban has rendered the artistes, belonging to different troupes, jobless, and they are now practising other famous dramas.
The play was written in 1920 by Kallakuri Narayana Rao, a social reformer. It ran into trouble in 2020-21, when several artiste groups performed a raunchy version of the play across the State to mark its centenary. However, leaders of the Arya Vysya community found it insulting and expressed that the content was offensive.
The play revolves around Subbi Shetty, a businessman from the Arya Vysya community, who loses his wealth and family due to his attraction to Chintamani—a courtesan and a devotee of Lord Krishna, who finds salvation by rendering bhajans.
The leaders pointed out that the community, throughout the play, was ridiculed. The character was portrayed as a short and dark-complexioned person. The community leaders lodged a complaint with Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, which led to the banning of the play. K Adi Narayana, an artiste from Tenali, opined that while other plays were mostly religious, Chintamani carried a social message, and hence the audience welcomed it.
“But some theatres tweaked the play to attract the young. The government should have instructed the artists to change the derogatory scenes instead of banning the play,” he said.“We are practising famous plays like Satya Harishchandra, Sri Krishna Rayabharam, Sri Krishna Tulabharam, Bala Nagamma, and other spiritual mythological dramas. Performing plays, entertaining the audience, and keeping the art form alive is the only thing we know,” Narayana said.
Another artiste, K Raghunath, said the ban on the famous play has affected their livelihood severely even as they were still reeling under the aftermath of Covid-19. “Now, we get to perform only during festivals and spiritual occasions, which has impacted our income gravely. We are barely making ends meet,” he lamented.