Kundapura: Yaksha Mahishasura’s performance almost brought down the stage

Kundapura: An artist portraying the demon Mahishasura in a Yakshagana performance at Chitoor here on Monday night caused terror when his act of banging his head to the stage’s pole almost brought down the entire stage.

Yakshagana performer Nandish Mogaveera Jannadi, an artist with the Maranakatte mela was performing as a guest artist for a show of the Perdur mela.

Jannadi is known for his grand Mahishasura entry and also for hitting the poles or pillars of the stage as part of his performance.

During his performance at Chitoor, he banged his head to the pole causing all the floral decoration on it to fall. Then he hit the other pole which started to shake violently.

Noticing this, the Bhagavatha on the stage instructed a stage aide to stop the pole from shaking.

The video of the headbanging act has now gone viral on social media. Along with appreciation, words of concern have also been commented for the artist.

The Bhagavatha of the show Jansale Raghavendra Acharya later said that he has instructed the artist that henceforth instead of actually hitting the pole, he should only act the headbanging part.

Speaking on the issue, the artist Nandish Mogaveera Jannadi said, “I perform in a harmless and non-life-threatening manner. Many well-wishers have said that I should perform without disappointing the audience as well as without hurting myself.”