Young people drawn to theatre, but have no audience: Kannada theatre veteran Prasanna

Of late, young people from every nook and corner of the country are being drawn to theatre in droves, but have nowhere to go, said playwright Heggodu Prasanna, founder of Karnataka’s celebrated amateur theatre group Samudaya and the national president of Indian People’s Theatre Association currently.

According to Prasanna, whose method acting techniques have become a source of inspiration for many Bollywood greats like the late Irrfan Khan and Pankaj Tripathi, although this kind of interest from the youth had never happened before in the history of theatre, this is not really surprising as young people were always looking to align themselves with something worthwhile.

“What had happened during the freedom movement or the Naxalite movement, where youth in cohorts would go on to become activists, is now happening with theatre. And this is a crazy situation. Because finally they all have to go to Mumbai, the ghetto of actors,” said Prasanna, when PTI caught up with him in Mysuru.