Shabana Azmi, Paresh Rawal to attend 8th Theatre Olympics

Agencies
February 14, 2018

Mumbai, Feb 14: With participation of 30 countries and 25,000 artistes from across the globe, National School of Drama (NSD) is set to host the "biggest theatre celebration" for the first time in India here.

The 8th edition of Theatre Olympics, touted as the largest international theatre festival, will be inaugurated by vice president Venkaiah Naidu on February 17 at the Red Fort, Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma announced today at a media briefing.

The 51-day theatre extravaganza will see 450 shows including 65 shows by international artistes, 600 ambient performances and 250 youth forum shows.

"Through the Theatre Olympics we will be able to showcase the Indian arts and culture in front of people of the world.

It is a huge event where 65 foreign shows will take place in 17 cities across the country. Folk artistes will also present their arts there," the minister said.

Among theatrical performances, the event will also see activities like 'Living Legends' series, 'Master Classes', symposia, 'Interface' and workshops. It will also include two international seminars and six national seminars.

The event will see eminent Indian theatre personalities like Shabana Azmi, Paresh Rawal, Manoj Joshi, Seema Biswas, Ratan Thiyam, Alyque Padamsee, M K Raina, Bansi Kaul and Usha Ganguly among others.

The festival will play host to international theatre artistes such as Theodoros Terzopoulos (chairman, International Committee of Theatre Olympics), Liu Libin (China), Sahika Tekand (Turkey), Jan Fabre (Belgium), and Pippo Delbono (Italy).

Speaking at the event, NSD director Waman Kendre said that with the theme of "Flag of Friendship" the objective of the event was to "create a platform for conversation between Indian and global artistes".

"With this international event, we wish to express our theatre practices, its variations, philosophies and the sheer strength of our texts, narratives and ways of presentation in front of a global audience.

"In return, we extend our arms to welcome the practices, ideologies and philosophies of visiting performers," he said.

The theatre event will see participation of countries including Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, and Greece.

The plays will be held at Agartala, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Imphal, Jaipur, Jammu, Kolkata, Mumbai, Patna, Thiruvananthapuram and Varanasi.

The festival will conclude with a grand ceremony at the Gateway of India in Mumbai on April 8.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
April 7,2020

New Delhi, Apr 7: Actor Disha Patani on Tuesday extended her warm wishes to legendary martial artist and actor Jackie Chan on his birthday.

The 'Baaghi 2' took to Instagram to share a throwback picture of herself with the Hong Kong-based actor and reminisced the times when she got the opportunity to work with him.

"Happiest b'day taguuu this was the first time I met you, I remember being so nervous but It turned out to be the best day of my life, getting an opportunity to work with my "superhero" is the best thing that has ever happened to me," she wrote in the caption.

"You teach people to be giving, loving and hardworking, thank you for blessing the world with your unreal performances and the most unforgettable life risking action sequences. Nobody can ever be "jackie chan" love you the most @jackiechan," she added.

Disha Patani and Jackie Chan worked together in a Chinese adventure comic film 'Kung Fu Yoga'.

The film was released worldwide in 2017 and it later became the highest-grossing film of Jackie Chan in China.

Besides Disha, the film also had two other Bollywood actors - Sonu Sood and Amyra Dastur.

Jackie Chan turned 66 today. He was many laurels to his name including the prestigious Oscar Award which was handed over to him in 2016 for his extraordinary achievements in the cinema industry.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
April 4,2020

New Delhi, April 4: Extending a helping hand to curb the spread of coronavirus, superstar Shah Rukh Khan and wife Gauri Khan have offered their personal office space in Mumbai for quarantine purpose for children, elderly and women.

The information was tweeted by the official Twitter handle of BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) on Saturday that thanked the couple for the gesture.

"Stronger together. We thank Shah Rukh Khan and Gauri Khan for offering their 4-storey personal office space to help expand our quarantine capacity equipped with essentials for quarantined children, women and elderly, Indeed a thoughtful and timely gesture!" the tweet read.

Earlier the 54-year-old superstar and his group companies had pledged to donate to a number of relief funds, including the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) fund and the Maharashtra Chief Minister's Relief Fund to combat the coronavirus.

The 'Devdas' actor had taken to Twitter on Thursday and shared that his companies -- Kolkata Knight Riders, Red Chillies Entertainment, Meer Foundation, and Red Chillies VFX -- are taking several initiatives to support the relief efforts.

The Padma Shri awardee also announced that his initial efforts will be focused on three cities -- Mumbai, Kolkata and New Delhi, "with the realisation that this is a start and we stand ready to contribute in whichever way possible going forward".

Meanwhile, India's tally of coronavirus positive cases rose to 2,902, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday.

Out of 2,902 cases, 2,650 are active cases and 184 have been cured or discharged or have migrated. The total number of deaths reported due to the disease rose to 68 on Saturday.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
April 8,2020

Washington, Apr 8: Choosing stethoscope over the crown, Miss England 2019, Bhasha Mukherjee, has returned to work as a doctor as the world battles with coronavirus pandemic.

According to CNN, she was a junior doctor with a specialisation in respiratory medicine, before being crowned as Miss England in August last year. The beauty queen, who has her roots in India's Kolkata city, had taken a career break from the medical field.

She had paused her medical career for some humanitarian work that she was offered by several charities and was on a tour to different countries including India.

"I was invited to Africa, to Turkey, then to India, Pakistan and several other Asian countries to be an ambassador for various charity work," CNN quoted her as saying.

She had been in India at the beginning of March for four weeks. During her stay as an ambassador of the Coventry Mercia Lions Club, the 24-year-old had visited several schools and had donated stationery and other items to the needy.

Mukherjee then returned back UK as the situation worsened there with the coronavirus spreading at a fast rate. She then contacted the hospital and asked them that she wanted to rejoin.

According to CNN, the Miss England beauty pageant winner said that she felt wrong to be wearing the crown while people around the world were dying from the virus.

"When you are doing all this humanitarian work abroad, you're still expected to put the crown on, get ready... look pretty. I wanted to come back home. I wanted to come and go straight to work," CNN quoted her as saying.

"I felt a sense of this is what I'd got this degree for and what better time to be part of this particular sector than now. It was incredible the way the whole world was celebrating all key workers, and I wanted to be one of those, and I knew I could help," she added.

As the beauty queen has a recent travel history, she is currently in self-isolation and will return to work once her quarantine period is over.
She was crowned as Miss England 2019 in August last year.

According to World Health Organisation, 13,53,361people have been affected by coronavirus and over 80,000 people have lost their lives to it.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.