It was a very special day today for Bengaluru's theatre folks and the theatre hub of
Ranga Shankara
. Not only was it the birthday of their founder
Arundhati Nag
, but it was also the 90th birthday of legendary filmmaker and theatreperson
MS Sathyu
, who has been one of the biggest pillars of support and mentors for the
theatre space
.
To celebrate the landmark occasion, the team released a special video that had all the main members of Ranga Shankara talking about the impact and guidance that Sathyu's suggestions have had to their place for it to become the space that it is today.
From the video, we learn that it was Sathyu who suggested the design of the stage area, which would have an equal space for the artistes and the stage on one side and the rest for the audience. In fact, Sathyu was part of the recee trips to Mumbai, where he got the architect team to understand how a theatre space should be built by taking them to various hotspots in Mumbai.
Arundhati, who also celebrated her birthday on the same day, began by showing people Sathyu's favourite spot and then shared some of her most joyous and inspiring memories of Sathyu through the journey of putting together Ranga Shankara.
Both Arundhati and Sathyu have been active in the new normal with various online discourses and talks that they have been partaking in, but the city's theatre aficionados are all rooting for the old normal to be back to see their two favourite theatrepersons in their adda together in person. We do, too!