Drama Schools to cater to regional aspirations in 5 places

New Delhi, Jan 9 (UNI) Union Culture Minister Ambika Soni has promised to start five National Schools of Drama in the country to cater to the aspirations of regional languages in the country.

This was informed by the Minister to a Kannada delegation consisting of Union Planning Minister M V Rajasekharan and former Union Minister Ananth Kumar who met her seeking a drama school in Bangalore, and to draw her attention to the ongoing fifth day fast undertaken by noted theatre personality and Convenor of Abhuvyakti Abhyan Prasanna.

The Minister also spoke to Mr Prasanna, conveying the decision of the government to start five drama schools, including one at Bangalore. One school each would come up in Goa-Maharashtra, West Bengal, Orissa and Jammu and Kashmir, Mr Rajasekharan and Mr Ananth Kumar told newspersons.

She had also conveyed the intentions of the government to provide theatre schools for every linguistic community to cater to their aspirations.

Over 75 per cent of the NSD graduates were heading straight for Bollywood, which was very far from realities.

Meanwhile, a Delhi theatre group consisting of Mr H S Shivaprakash and Mr Raina also met the minister to draw her attention to Prasanna's fast and told her that theatre groups in Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and other places had undertaken fasts offering symbolic support to Mr Prasanna's indefinite fast demanding theatre education programme in their mother tongues as thrusting ''One nation-One Theatre'' policy was detrimental to the mother tongues.

UNI