Minister's delay forces Rashid Khan to wind up show in 30 mts

Aurangabad, Maharashtra, Nov 25 (UNI) Late arrival of ministers for the inauguration of the Ellora Ajanta Festival here last evening forced renowned classical vocalist Ustad Rashid Khan to wind up his performance in about 30 minutes.

The four-day long festival, aimed at tourism promotion of the historic city of Aurangabad and its heritage sites, began here last evening when Maharashtra Minister of State for Tourism Suresh Shetty inagurated the event at 1930 hrs instead of 1800 hrs, the scheduled time announced earlier by the Ellora Ajanta Fesitval Committee(EAFC).

As per the schedule, Ustad Rashid Khan was to perform between 2030 hrs to 2200 hrs in the second phase of the day's programme.

Prior to his performance, noted film actress and Bharatnatyam performer Shobana was to perform between 1900 hrs to 2030 hrs.

However, the schedule collapsed due to late beginning of the event and Ms Shobana had to perform between 1930 hrs to 2040 hrs instead.

The inauguration function which was scheduled to begin at 1730 hrs started at 1900 hrs, only after the Minister of State for Tourism accompanied by another Minister of State for Housing Ad Pritamkumar Shegaonkar and several other political leaders reached the venue.

District Collector Vikas Kharge said that the Minister of State for Tourism reached late at the venue due to two-hour delay in the arrival of Indian Airlines flight which Mr Shetty had boarded. The flight landed Aurangabad at 1825 hrs instead of 1625 hrs yesterday.

When contacted by UNI, Chief Co-ordinator of the Ellora Ajanta Festival Committee Deelip Shinde said he agreed that the audience in large numbers were disappointed by the limited slot Ustad Rashid Khan got due to the delay but said it was mandatory for the committee to end the programme before 2200 hrs as per the Supreme Court's guidelines, even though it started late.

Mr Shinde said that the festival committee has decided to invite the noted vocalist soon to perform in the city on some later date after consulting him.

Ustad Rashid Khan initiated with Raag Puriya and performed with his 'bass-based' kharj. He recited Bandish 'More Ghar aa' and ended with Bhairavi at 2158 hrs.

Several people from the audience expressed their disappointment, when the Ustad suddenly started Bhairavi to end the mehfil.

Prior to Ustad Rashid Khan, the South Indian cine actress and Bharatnatyam performer Shobana and her troupe mesmerised the over five thousand music lovers by presenting the mixture of tradition and modern music. She experimented with the classical dance performance with the western music.

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