Theatre
in Goa in any form and language is an extension of our culture and
there are very dedicated artistes
who are keeping this tradition alive. Two theatre personalities,
Pradeep Naik and Satish Narvekar, have dedicated decades of their
lives to the
stage. Pradeep Naik was recently awarded the National Kala Ratna
Award and Satish Narvekar was awarded the National Kala Bhushan Award
by Shikshan Vikas Parishad.
The
felicitation programme
of said awards
will be organised at the 22nd conference of Shikshan Vikas Parishad,
which will be held in November this year at Sangli, Maharashtra.
“Shikshak Vikas Parishad has
been established
by state and national award winning teachers from India. Besides the
conferences and workshops, which are
being
organised since 1997, contributors
to the fields
of education, social, art, literature, industry, agriculture and
science are also
felicitated,”
says Pradeep Naik about the association.
Originally
from Carambolim, Pradeep Naik was born and brought up in Morjim under
the guidance of his grandfather Pandurang Mayenkar. He started acting
in Marathi ‘natak’ at the age of 5. With a career spanning over
40 years, Pradeep has won prestigious awards like the
Shankar
Ghanekar Award, Gulab Award and several acting awards from Kala
Academy for Marathi plays and tiatr. He received five Best Actor
State Awards
for acting in tiatrs
‘Novo Dis Udetanam’ (2011),
‘Mog Mogan Jiye’(2012),
‘Sounsar Budla’(2014)
, ‘Pai’(2015)
and ‘Strike’(2016)
at
the Popular
Tiatr Festival organised
by Tiatr
Academy, Goa.
“I
love acting in tiatrs;
I have many
Catholics
friends
who help me with
my Konkani
accent for the tiatrs. Though the words are said differently,
the acting elements are the same,” says Pradeep, who is the first
Goan actor to
have six of
his films and
short films screened during the International Film Festival of India,
Goa.
Pradeep
has acted in Marathi, Hindi, Konkani and English dramas and films. He
has also acted in many programmes on All India Radio and Doordarshan.
He has written and published a short essay book ‘Pairchich Gazal’.
Currently employed at Directorate of Art and Culture, Government of
Goa, he is working in a Konkani film, ‘Padrik Nanv Na’ in which
he will be portraying the role of a priest. “I don’t get time
to watch plays and films but I read a lot,
especially about characters which can help my acting calibre. I love
reading autobiographies about actors who share their acting journey,”
he says. He is currently part of Comedian Agostinho’s tiatr troupe.
Satish
Narvekar too
was brought up surrounded by theatre actors and drama lovers. Born
and brought up in St Inez, Panjim, he was a stone’s
throw away from Kala Academy, the hub for all cultural activities. “I
would walk to Kala Academy in the evenings to see nataks, dramas and
tiatrs. My cousin,
Devidas Amonkar,
was the founding member of Rudreshwar Panaji, a well-known cultural
organisation
working in the field of Art and Culture in Goa for the
last 23 years.
I used to be in awe of the actors and dramas. Through my school and
college at St Xavier’s College, Mapusa, I was part of every
vernacular theatre festival and competition that were organised in
Goa,” says Satish, who besides theatre, loves playing cricket.
A
director, light designer, set designer, costume designer and music
designer, Satish has been
a part of more than
60 one act plays in Marathi, Hindi, Konkani
and English
and has
more than 600
shows to his credits. He has
also acted in
three short films and directed one short film.
He is working
as a secretary of Rudreshwar Panaji. He has also presented plays on
All India Radio and Doordarshan. He has worked as a theatre
artist in Kala Academy’s Rangamel and also as a senior producer and
Radio Jockey at 92.7 Big FM.
Most
recently, Satish directed the play ‘Vakshak‘,
which was written by Vishnu
Surya Wagh and was presented at Asia’s most prestigious and India’s
biggest drama
festival ’Bharat Ranga Mohotsav’ organised
by National School of Drama, New Delhi in 2016. “It was a huge
honour as there were nearly 1,000
international plays which were submitted,
from which 80 were selected,” he says. He has also participated in
the
Colombo
International Theatre Festival, Sri Lanka in 2015.
Satish
has worked
with directors like Padmashri Bansi Kaurl, Afsar Husai, Vidyneedhi
Vanarase, Devidas Amonkar, Deepak Amonkar and M Saffer from Sri
Lanka. “I love watching experimental plays as they have much more
to offer for an actor. I make it a point to watch every play, natak
that is
performed in
Goa as it helps me grow as a theatre artisty,”
he
concludes.
