Samudaya, known for staging street and protest plays, turns 50

Samudaya, a Kannada theatre group founded in 1975, recently celebrated its golden jubilee at Ravindra Kalakshetra in Bengaluru with a three-day festival, featuring popular theatre songs and plays.

Inspired by Brecht’s philosophy that art is not just for art’s sake, Samudaya was set up during the Emergency to raise voice against social ills and corruption. It is a protest form of theatre, which was popularised by Badal Sarkar. It has had among its members stalwarts such as Agrahara Krishnamurthy, Prasanna Heggodu, K.N. Nagaraj, M.C. Venkatesh and Shashidhar Bharigat. C.K. Gundanna, secretary of the cultural forum and winner of the Karnataka Rajyotsava Award, shares Samudaya’s journey and its ideologies.

“Though in the 1970s this medium was seen as a means of entertainment, our aim was to use theatre as a tool for change with plays such as Sattavara Neralu, Jokumaraswamy, Ghashiram Kotwal and Jasma Oden. When B.V. Karanth directed the play Che Guevara we began to be termed ascommunists.”

Gundanna
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

To begin with Samudaya focused on street plays. Says Gundanna, “In Bengaluru itself, we have staged 20 street plays, but the number has gone down. We have protested against issues relating to water scarcity, price rise and factory labourers through our street plays. If a play was to be staged in Kundapur or Gulbarga, members of that unit would act and also direct it.”

“Apart from artistes, Samudaya also has academicians and literary personalities as its members. Vijayamma, a journalist, also joined us,” shares Gundanna, adding that the name ‘Samudaya’ (meaning community) was coined by Keeram Nagaraj, an academician.

A scene from the playTughlaq, staged by Samudaya
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu archives

Among the many iconic plays with a social message, staged by Samudaya, Gundanna speaks about Huttava Badidare, written by K.V. Narayana, which deals with the exploitation of people by a king. “We also staged Brecht’s Mother, which had music by Karanth, who had composed it differently to highlight the social message in the lyrics.”

A scene from Samudaya’s Pampa Bharatha
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Looking back at Samudaya’s five-decade journey, Gundanna feels happy about how the group faced all challenges to reach this milestone. Today, the group has branches across Karnataka including Mangaluru, Mysuru, Tumkuru, KGF, Dharwad and Hospet.

“We had 35 units earlier, of which only 10 are active now. We needed someone to co-ordinate among these units. I volunteered,” says Gundanna, who joined Samudaya along with his friend C.G. Krishnamurthy (known as CGK), to become an actor, but got busy with secretarial, backstage and organisational roles.” 

The poster of the play, Huttava Badidare
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

“Samudaya, never banked on government funding, hence, there have been times when we have not staged a play for a year or two due to lack of funds. Yet, when a pressing issue had to be addressed, we have taken loans to stage plays and later cleared them. The aim has been to use theatre to create social, religious and political awareness. But we do not live in the illusion that our plays will revolutionise the society overnight. We look at ourselves as agents instrumental in making people think and be aware of the happenings around them,” says Gundanna.