Village on stage

HYDERABAD: Hyderabadis are slowly warming up to Telugu language plays much to happiness of the artists. The one which recently was staged by Kissago theatre group, Jammikunta Drama Company, made sure to tickle the funny bones. We caught up with the cast and crew of the play to know about their experience of staging the play post pandemic and more.  

Talking about how the play was conceived, Jay Jha, the director, says, “This was a device production where all the actors meet and discuss or develop a story. It is not written by anybody, we as a team wrote the story and the songs for an original play. The hour-long play was based on ten characters set in a village background. The play dealt with serious social issues like casteism but had a light mood to it.” Adding, “It is great to see Telugu dramas getting so much love. I have been into theatres for 12 years now, but never saw such productions happening till now. The audience had a great time and were seen laughing due to the play of different accents like Bhimawaram accent, Telangana and Andhra accent.”

Preetham who played the character named Ratnala Ramulu speaking about his experience of acting in the play said, “When I joined the theatre group I never thought that I would learn so much. As we got the freedom to act I got the freedom to learn. My character in the play is based on a person who had moved to Mumbai and is now coming back to the village he belongs after a long time. My character in the play wanted to bring change by getting a theatre group in the village.”

Sunny (Katala Sai Teja) who played the role Saidhulu in the play says, “Getting in to the head space of Siadhulu brought so much of naive energy into me. The innocence of the villagers and the essence of the village environment was very beautifully devised. I initially felt it cheesy while doing the lines for the play but as time progressed my character and his background I started to see the world through his eyes. All the villagers in our play are characters worth remembering. All in all this experience was kind of spiritual awakening for me.”