bag three awards each
- Diversity and excellence of plays appreciated by jury members
and audiences alike
The theatre fraternity came
together tonight for a red-carpet awards gala at
the 12th Mahindra Excellence in Theatre
Awards (META) Festival. Curated by the Mahindra Group and Teamwork
Arts, the week-long extravaganza came
to an end as the best from the world of theatre were
awarded the META at The Taj Mahal Hotel,
Mansingh Road, on
Friday.
The annual awards, which recognise excellence in theatre
nationally, celebrate the intrinsic diversity and rich cultural traditions of
India. The META is India’s
most comprehensive award and a premier honour for the theatre fraternity,
awarding on-stage and off-stage talent across 14
award categories, including the prestigious Lifetime
Achievement Award.
Like every
year, this year’s short-list of META was diverse and showcased the
best of Indian theatre. For a week, the festival staged 10 nominated
plays that revolved around motifs ranging from mythology and caste to complex
love stories and human emotions. The line-up
featuring plays in English as well as several Indian
Languages including Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, etc., received
an overwhelming response from the audience as the shows ran to packed
houses. The Jury for META 2017 comprised theatre stalwarts Dolly Thakore,
Mahesh Dattani, Sachin Khedekar, Seema Biswas, Avijit Dutt and Maya Krishna
Rao.
While Mahabharata bagged
the award for Best Production along with Best Director and Best
Choreography, I
Don’t Like It As You Like It, won Best Ensemble, Best
Stage Design and Best Actor in Supporting Role (Female), and Elephant
in the Room won Best Actor in a Lead Role (Female), Best Costume Design
and Best Light Design, giving them three awards each. The award for Best Actor
in a Lead Role (Male) was jointly presented to Anirban Bhattacharya (Awddyo Shesh Rajani) and Rajendra
Panchal (Katha Sukavi
Suryamall Ki).
Noted
theatre veteran, Arun Kakade was conferred the META Lifetime
Achievement Award for
his contribution to Indian theatre. He got a standing ovation as he received
the Lifetime Achievement Award. He said, “I
am so happy that META has been promoting Indian theatre for the last 12 years.
There is diverse variety in the plays that come here. I have staged my plays
here thrice before, but at the age of 86, I wasn’t expecting any award really.
I am thankful to the META Festival organisers for this prestigious honour.”
Hosted
by Prateik Babbar and Shilpa Shukla, the scintillating awards night
saw several luminaries, including Manoj Bajpayee, Sushma Seth, M.K
Raina, Sachin Khedekar, Bubbles Sabharwal, Dadi Pudumjee, Vinod Nagpal, Sanjana
Kapoor, Nicholas Idier andJim Hollington. Performances by the
band Samarpan, Harpreet, Neil Madhav and Rachna Yadav further
enlivened the proceedings.
Veterans
from theatre, cinema, music, and dance presented the coveted awards to the
ecstatic awardees andnoted personalities like Manoj Bajpayee, Meera &
Muzaffar Ali, Aditi Mangaldas and Seema Biswas were among those who gave away
awards.
Commenting
on the awards, Jay Shah, Head, Cultural Outreach, Mahindra and
Mahindra Ltd. said, “The 12th META has concluded with all the drama,
fanfare and applause it deserves. The 10 best productions from across India
vied for the top honours in the nations capital. While awards were presented to
just a few, each META participant has been a winner. The Mahindra Group too
feels a great sense of victory for being able to establish a platform that
defines excellence in Indian Theatre. A Rise moment for all!”
Sanjoy
K Roy, Managing Director, Teamwork Arts and Producer META Festival, said, “The journey of
META has been one of the most artistically fruitful and soul-satisfying for all
of us. META 2017 brought together some of the finest theatre from
across the country. From the heartwarming story of an upper caste person
breaking bread with a Dalit to the machinations in a corporate office, from the
saga of the Mahabharata to the inner musings of Ganesha, the actors transported
us across time and space and reflected the diversity and cultural richness of
India.”
Here's
the complete list of winners that won hearts and stole the show at the 12th META
Festival this year:
|
Category
|
Winner
|
Production
|
|
Life time Achievement
Award
|
Arun Kakade
|
-
|
|
Best Actor in a Lead
Role (Male)
|
Anirban Bhattacharya /Rajendra
Panchal
|
Awddyo Shesh
Rajani /Katha Sukavi Suryamall Ki
|
|
Best Actor in a Lead
Role (Female)
|
Yuki Ellias
|
Elephant in the Room
|
|
Best Actor in a
Supporting Role (Male)
|
Alok Kumar
|
Lassanwala
|
|
Best Actor in a
Supporting Role (Female)
|
Faezeh Jalali
|
I Don’t Like It As
You Like It
|
|
Best Director
|
Anurupa Roy
|
Mahabharata
|
|
Best Original Script
|
Adhir Bhat
|
Dhumrapaan
|
|
Best Production
|
Anurupa Roy
|
Mahabharata
|
|
Best Ensemble
|
-
|
I Don’t Like It As
You Like It
|
|
Best Innovative Sound
/Music Design
|
Sachin Gurjale
|
Bhima
|
|
Best Costume Design
|
Sumaiya Merchant
|
Elephant in
the Room
|
|
Best Stage Design
|
Meenal Agarwal
|
I Don’t Like It As
You Like It
|
|
Best Light
Design
|
Asmit Pathare
|
Elephant in
the Room
|
|
Best Choreography
|
Avinash Kumar
|
Mahabharata
|
Come, be a part of the
journey! You can follow META on:
Facebook - @Mahindra
Excellence in Theatre Awards
Twitter - @METAwards
Instagram - @metawards
NOTES
TO EDITORS
About
Mahindra
The
Mahindra Group is a USD 17.8 billion federation of companies that enables
people to rise through innovative mobility solutions, driving rural prosperity,
enhancing urban living, nurturing new businesses and fostering communities. It
has a leadership position in utility vehicles, information technology, financial
services and vacation ownership in India and is the world’s largest tractor
company, by volume. It also enjoys a strong presence in agribusiness,
components, commercial vehicles, consulting services, energy, industrial
equipment, logistics, real estate, steel, aerospace, defence and two wheelers.
Headquartered in India, Mahindra employs over 200,000 people across 100
countries.
About
Teamwork Arts
For
over 25 years, Teamwork Arts has taken India to the world and brought the world
to India.
In
countries such as Australia, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy,
Israel, Korea, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, UK and USA, Teamwork produces
over 25 highly acclaimed performing arts, visual arts and literary festivals
across more than 40 cities. Teamwork produces one of the world’s largest free
literary gatherings, the annual ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival, international
festivals Shared History in South Africa, Eye on India in the United States of
America, India by the Bay in Hong Kong, and many more.
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