It’s been just a few days since the Chattisgarh government lifted the ban on late Habib Tanvir’s play Charandas Chor, and now the 32 member Bhopal-based Naya Theatre group is set to stage the controversial play at a theatre festival in our city.
It has been almost five months since Tanvir succumbed to ill health, and the condition of the theater group formed by the master director in 1959 comprising of folk artistes from remote villages, remains much the same. Dhannulal Sinha, who has been working with Naya Theatre for a decade now, says, “What we earn through Naya is just enough to feed us dal-roti,” adding that most artistes in the group have no other career apart from the stage.
Sinha is glad the Chattisgarh government lifted the ban for “lack of evidence” after the issue was raised in the Vidhan Sabha. He points out that ever since the ban was announced, they had been inundated with support from cities, especially like Delhi and Kolkata where Tanvir’s works are extremely popular. Interestingly, in 2011, Charandas Chor is slated for a grand UK tour.
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