New Delhi: In an unprecedented move, the National School of Drama in New Delhi has withdrawn its own invitation extended for the staging of the Bengali play Titumir, written by a theatre doyen, the late Utpal Dutt, at the 22nd Bharat Rang Mahotsav to be held in February in the prestigious drama school, an autonomous institution located in New Delhi.
The play Titumir is situated in the pre-independence era and casts the colonial British regime as the perpetrator of atrocities. Dutt was a known playwright and actor of repute, with many plays and movies he is still vividly remembered for. The play has at its centre the character of Titu Mir, who was a Bengali freedom fighter who led the Narkelberia Uprising of 1831, considered the first armed peasant uprising against the British.
Joyoraj Bhattacharjee of the theatre formation Porivartak is the Kolkata-based director of the play. He was surprised at the decision taken suddenly to exclude the play after it was first among nine chosen plays the NSD had invited to be staged in February. The theme of the Mahotsav this time is “unsung heroes” of the freedom movement. Bhattacharjee told The Wire, “To me it is very clear why this has happened. The hero of this play is Titu Mir, an unsung hero of the freedom movement. He is a perfect fit with the theme. But because he is a practicing Muslim, it is very evident that the authorities, the NSD, the Ministry of Culture and this government got scared and suspicious.”
Bhattacharjee says he was asked a series of questions on the phone, including if it was “anti-government”. He says he told them “It was. It was anti-government, anti the British government.”
The director of National School of Drama, R.C. Gaur confirmed to The Wire that the play had been pulled, “along with another one, Sangeet Devbhavli written and directed by Prajakt Deshmukh of Bhadrakali Productions, Mumbai, in Marathi, as we have not received the script and video of this play for Review before the Review Committee. The committee accepted the request of director of the play to withdraw his play from Bharat Rang Mahotsav.”
Gaur says that he postponed the meeting of the committee set up to “see all plays, the script and the video,” to accommodate Joyoraj’s request to wait for January 17 to send the video, but nothing came. “I asked my staff, have you seen the play? We need to ensure that nothing offensive, anything politically motivated comes through, there are clauses in our terms and conditions that we cannot allow such plays to go through. As the script was in Bangla and no video came, we have decided to not allow it. Instead of these two plays, we have decided that Shakuntalam and Baayen (by Mahasweta Devi) will be staged.”
Renowned theatre director and head of the association of the NSD alumni M.K. Raina said he was “shocked at such a decision, to send back a well-known play by such a great name. That too after the NSD invited the play; the director did not apply for it to be staged. This is clearly the beginning of the end of NSD as a centre of excellence.”
The National School of Drama describes itself as “one of the foremost theatre training institutions in the world and the only one of its kind in India”. It was set up by the Sangeet Natak Akademi as one of its constituent units in 1959. In 1975, it became an independent entity and was registered as an autonomous institution.
NSD has recently had its share of controversies. Almost 260 artists, writers and former faculty members wrote to NSD to raise “grave concern” about the institute allegedly promoting religious festivals on its Instagram account. In a letter to the chairperson of the NSD, they raised objections to the religious messages being shared and demanded their removal.
Bhattacharjee said he would “love to still bring the play to Delhi but it would be expensive to stage it on our own – it is a large cast and crew of 45”.