Rathna Shekar Reddy

Rathna Shekar Reddy is an award-winning Indian film actor from Hyderabad, Telangana. He is the co-founder of prominent Hyderabad-based theatre group Samahaara along with writer-director Anjali Parvati Koda.^[1] He starred in the National Award-winning Telugu film, Na Bangaaru Talli^[2] and films like Ishq, Virodhi,Gutthi, Yuddham Saranam. Samahaara is known for organising the Hyderabad Theatre Festival and their original plays.

Early life and education

Rathna Shekar Reddy hails from a farming background and was born and educated in Hyderabad, while working on his parents farm.^[3] He completed his MBA from Siva Sivani Institute, then went on to do MA in Theatre Arts at Central University, Hyderabad, where he was awarded a gold medal. He then moved to New York City, where he studied at Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, after which he came back to Hyderabad to start his theatre group Samahaara.

Career

Reddy is a Hyderabadi theatre and Telugu film actor^[4] and an alumnus of the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.^[5] He is best known for his critically acclaimed theatre productions like Purushotham, Dominic Wesley, Last Wish Baby,^[6] Gregor Samsa^[7] and others and his work in movies like Ishq (Telugu) and Ente (Malayalam).^[8] His body of work includes The Imaginary Invalid,^[9] Fiddler on the Roof,^[10] Purushotham, Wait Until Dark,^[11] The Last Wish Baby.^[12]

Reddy conducts theatre workshops which run full,^[13] produces and directs plays for both Samahaara and outside institutions like schools, colleges, corporates and others. His movies include Mana Kuralle^[14] in which he plays a negative lead, Antha Scene Ledu,^[15] lead in the award-winning Naa Bangaaru Thalli,^[16] Yuddham Sharanam and others. His TV show Wow Emi Ruchi for which he was the host for more than a 100 episodes gained him tremendous popularity on the small screen.^[17]

Movies

His movies include National Award winner for Best Feature Film - Telugu Na Bangaaru Talli ^[18] (Ente in Malayalam),^[16] the award-winning Gutthi-the Riddle, Virodhi, Ishq, Yamudiki Mogudu, Mana Kurralle, Yuddham Sharanam and others. He won the best actor award at the Abhinandana Akkineni Film Awards 2015 for his role of Vijay in the film Naa bangaaru thalli which was presented to him on 21 September 2015 at Ravindra Bharathi auditorium, Hyderabad.

Samahaara

Rathna Shekar began with touring their maiden production The Crest of the Peacock,^[19][20] an educational play on mathematics across the twin cities to schools and colleges, staging more than 50 shows. Their play Purushotham-He, the Victim of Spiders and Pressure Cookers has gotten critical acclaim. They have worked on many productions since including another original play Dominic Wesley written by Koda directed by UK-based Stu Denison, Unlucky (based on Samuel Beckett's plays) also directed by Denison,^[21] Rabindranath Tagore's Post Office, Woody Allen's God,^[22] Athol Fugard's The Island and many workshop productions.

Bringing Hyderabad Theatre Together

The group Samahaara under the guidance of Rathna Shekar Reddy is credited with making theatre popular and involving the young crowd in Hyderabad. Their most significant contribution to the Theatre of India, apart from their original productions, has been organizing four editions of The Hyderabad Theatre Festival, namely The Hyderabad Theatre Festival 2009,^[23] The Hyderabad Theatre and Short-Film Festival 2010^[5][24] and the Samahaara Hyderabad Theatre and Rock Music Festival 2011.^[25][26] and the Hyderabad Theatre Festival 2012. The Festival has been instrumental in bringing together the various amateur and professional theatre groups in Hyderabad and improving the quality and scale of the plays. The platform of HTF as it is abbreviated has been a great boost for theatre groups in Hyderabad.^[17]

Many of Samahaara's stand-alone productions are performed at various auditoriums across the city, including the open-cultural center Lamakaan, the iconic Ravindra Bharathi, Telugu University and Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. HTF 2009 was held in June 2009 at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, HTF 2010 was conducted at Ravindra Bharathi in July 2010 for 7 days and HTF 2011 was conducted in December 2011 at three venues: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Ravindra Bharathi and Taramati Baradari.^[27]

Their project Samahaara Theatre Cooperative is a unique curation where a group of actors are chosen and given training and also given opportunities to perform on stage for a year with Samahaara.^[17]

Contribution to theatre

With his performances and his flair for the art, he has touched the hearts of hundreds and can be termed as a person largely responsible for what can only be called as a 'theatre revolution' in the city visible in the last few years. Youngsters in Hyderabad are now able to find a mentor to mould their talent. He has created a platform for them to develop and display their talent.^[28] Other theatre groups in the city have recognized the contribution of Samahaara and Rathna Shekar by crediting "the recent surge in audience interest" to him and to Samahaara's annual Hyderabad Theatre Festival "which opened new vistas for drama lovers in the city".^[29] Also the continued efforts in educating and training people in theatre has seen a dramatic rise in interest from the audience - "In order to measure the growth of theatre in Hyderabad, one has to see the workshops at grass root level" say theatre pratictioners in the city and "give credit to Ratna Sekhar Reddy for his initiative".^[30]

Theatre workshops

After returning from New York, Shekar started to freelance by conducting workshops and directing plays and figuring out ways to build a career in theatre as Hyderabad had nothing much to offer at that time.^[17] Samahaara has organised more than 150 theatre workshops for both beginners and professionals by theatre personalities like Rathna Shekar Reddy, Mike Daisey, Theatre MXT from USA (in association with the US Consulate General Hyderabad),^[31] Stu Denison from the UK and David Zinder from Israel.^[32] The workshops help promote theatre awareness and increase professional approach and scope in the city.^[33] His workshops offer a mix of outdoor theatre activities, reading, analysis, discussion and performances.^[34]

Television

Rathna Shekar hosted a TV Show Wow Emi Ruchi^[17] for more than a 100 shows.

Theatre

• The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (English) (Actor-Director)
• Court Martial by Swadesh Deepak (Hindi) (Actor-Director)
• The Bear by Anton Chekhov (English) (Actor-Director)
• The Proposal by Anton Chekhov (English) (Actor-Director)
• Hamlet by William Shakespeare (English) (Actor-Director)
• Dominic Wesley by Anjali Parvati Koda (English) (Actor-Director)
• The Zoo Story by Edward Albee (English) (Actor)
• Purushotham by Anjali Parvati Koda (English) (Actor-Director)
• The Crest of the Peacock by Sarada Devi (English) (Actor)
• Maranoparanth by Surendra Varma (Hindi) (Actor)
• Urubhangam by Bhasa (Telugu) (Actor)
• Pranam Khareedu by A.S.Rao (Telugu) (Actor-Director)
• Bhagavat Ajjukiyam by Bhavabhuthi (Telugu) (Actor)
• Nagamandala by Girish Karnad (Telugu) (Actor)
• Prajanayakudu Prakasham by Prof. M.N.Sharma (Telugu) (Actor)
• Amballa Banda by Bhoopal Reddy (Telugu) (Actor)
• Dongatakam by Vishwanatha Kaviraju (Telugu) (Actor)
• Taj Mahal Ka Tender by Ajay Shukla (Hindi) (Director)
• Karna by Anjali Parvati Koda (English) (Director)
• Beauty and the Beast (Musical) by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve (English) (Director)
• A Distant Plateau by Paul Skye (English) (Director)
• 12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose (English) (Director)
• Jungle Book (Musical) by Rudyard Kipling (English) (Director)
• Gregor Samsa by Anjali Parvati Koda (English) (Director)
• The Good Doctor by Neil Simon (English) (Director)
• The Wizard of Oz (Musical) by L Frank Baum (English) (Director)
• Sound of Music (Musical) by Earnest Lehman (English) (Director)
• Farewell by Team Samahaara (Multilingual) (Director)
• Princess and the frog by The Brothers Grimm (English) (Director)
• Charlie’s Aunt by Brandon Thomas (English) (Director)
• The Last wish Baby Adapted by Anjali Parvati Koda and Team Samahaara (Multilingual) (Director)
• Beyond the land of Hattamala by Badal Sarkar (English) (Director)
• Wait until dark by Frederick Knott (English) (Director)
• Fiddler on the roof (Musical) by Joseph Stein (English) (Director)
• And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (English) (Director)
• Imaginary Invalid by Molière (English) (Director)
• Isosceles Triangle by C H Phansalkar (Director)

References