Rathna Shekar Reddy

Rathna Shekar Reddy is an Indian film actor from Hyderabad, Telangana. He is the co-founder of the Telugu theatre group Samahaara and an actor in Telugu cinema. He starred in the National Award winning Telugu film, Na Bangaaru Talli^[1] and films like Ishq, Virodhi, and Gutthi. Samahaara is known for organizing 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.^[2] 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

Rathna Shekar Reddy is a Hyderabadi theatre and Telugu film actor^[3] and an alumnus of the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.^[4] He is best known for his critically acclaimed theatre productions like Purushotham, Dominic Wesley, Last Wish Baby,^[5] Gregor Samsa^[6] and others and his work in movies like Ishq (Telugu) and Ente (Malayalam).^[7] His body of work includes The Imaginary Invalid,^[8] Fiddler on the Roof,^[9] Purushotham, Wait Until Dark,^[10] The Last Wish Baby.^[11]

Rathna Shekar Reddy conducts theatre workshops which run full,^[12] trains actors for both stage and cinema and produces and directs plays for both Samahaara and outside institutions like schools, colleges, corporates and others. His upcoming releases are Mana Kuralle^[13] in which he plays a negative lead, Antha Scene Ledu,^[14] lead in the award winning Naa Bangaaru Thalli^[15] and others.

Movies

His movies include National Award winner for Best Feature Film - Telugu Na Bangaaru Talli ^[16] (Ente in Malayalam),^[15] the award winning Gutthi-the Riddle, Virodhi, Ishq, Yamudiki Mogudu and upcoming movies like Antha Scene Ledu and Mana Kuralle.

Samahaara

Rathna Shekar began with touring their maiden production The Crest of the Peacock,^[17][18] 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,^[19] Rabindranath Tagore's Post Office, Woody Allen's God,^[20] Athol Fugard's The Island and many workshop productions.

The Hyderabad Theatre Festival

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,^[21] The Hyderabad Theatre and Short-Film Festival 2010^[22][23] and the Samahaara Hyderabad Theatre and Rock Music Festival 2011.^[24][25] 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.

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.^[26]

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.^[27] 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".^[28] 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".^[29]

Theatre workshops

Samahaara also organized many 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),^[30] Stu Denison from the UK and David Zinder from Israel.^[31] The workshops help promote theatre awareness and increase professional approach and scope in the city.^[32]

References