In the second week of November 2022, Maharashtra State’s 61st Amateur Marathi Drama competition was flagged off at nearly two dozen centres spread all over Maharashtra, from Chandrapur to Kolhapur. This competition has been regularly held by the state government for the last 60 years, barring the Covid years. This is a unique competition organized by the state government to encourage theatre enthusiasts. After the preliminary round held at various centres, the final round will be held.
Maharashtra state came into existence on 1st May 1960. Late Y B Chavan, the first chief minister of Maharashtra, was the connoisseur of art‚ theatre and culture. Under his stewardship Maharashtra state had launched many initiatives to support art, culture and literature. And one these initiatives is the Annual drama competition for amateurs.
Similarly, there are annual competitions for children theatre, working class theatre, Hindi theatre and professional Marathi theatre.
Organizing amateur competition is a huge challenge as it involves booking theatres in nearly two dozen cities. Each centre has over dozen entries. The state government's Department of Culture is responsible for organizing this gala event. The department invites entries for various centres, finalizes the schedule, selects three juries and then competition at the centre is launched. Convention has it that the juries are from outside the city/town. For final round, five juries are appointed who watch one two-act play a day. The winners of preliminary rounds carry the cash prizes. The first prize of Rs. 40,000, the second prize is of Rs. 30000 and the third prize of Rs 20000. And in the final round, the winners get Rs 50000, Rs 30,000 and Rs. 20,000. The awards cover many categories like the best play, best male actor, best female actor, best director and lights, set, costumes, etc. This year the preliminary round in all the centres is likely to be over by the first week of January.
Maharashtra is perhaps the only state in Indian Union that organizes such drama competition every year. It has indeed helped the young theatre talent in the state to bloom under state patronage. The winners get many offers from professional theatre groups, TV serials and Marathi cinema production houses. Over the years, the competition has supplied good amount of talent to the entertainment industry. Plays like Vijay Tendulkar’s ‘Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe’ etc were performed in this competition and later picked up by others. Young playwrights like Ratnakar Matakari, P L Mayekar had showcased their work here. Actors like Avinash Narkar‚ Sadashiv Amarapurkar, Arun Nalawade, Nirmiti Sawant were noticed through this competition. Directors like Kumar Sohoni got breaks only after proving their mettle in this competition. Today’s well‐known back-state artists like Sheetal Talpade Shyam Chavan later also earned name on commercial theatre.
Each year theatre-groups across the state eagerly wait for this competition as it offers a golden opportunity to bring their talent to public notice. Even today the state government on purpose sells the tickets for this competition at ridiculous rates like Rs. 15 and Rs 10. The idea is to encourage many people to see these plays.
