Gerish Khemani and Akshat Nigam awarded the first prize at The Hindu Playwright Award 2017...
August 11, 2017 4:32:58 PM IST MTG editorial
Gerish Khemani's and Akshat Nigam's play IN SEARCH OF DARIYA SAGAR, based on the Sindhi experience of the Partition, has won the first prize at the playwriting awards organised by the newspaper The Hindu in Chennai. The Rs. two lakh award was presented to the two playwrights at the 13th edition of The Hindu Theatre festival. For Gerish who is a Sindhi, the play is personal while Akshat felt that that there was more to the story than the Sindhis were willing to share.
Gerish Khemani and Akshat Nigam have been active in theatre in Mumbai and have been focused on creating meaningful works. RIPPLES, a heartfelt play, which Khemani co-wrote with Harsh Desai, is about education in rural India. Nigam and Khemani worked together on ERROR 404: LIFE NOT FOUND, in which two men recall their experiences with one-third of their lives behind them.
Deepika Arwind's THE PLAYWRIGHT IS DEAD and K. Madavane's 1947- THE MAN FROM LAHORE were the other shortlisted plays out of the 183 entries received. The jury comprised Arshia Sattar who is a well-known author and translator; Keval Arora who teaches English Literature and drama at Kirorimal College, Delhi University; and theatre director and documentary filmmaker Sunil Shanbag.