Bargarh: Putting all speculations to rest and leaving 22 aspirants behind, Bhubaneswar Pradhan of Sarla village under this block was picked up to play the character of Kansa for the latest edition of Dhanu Yatra, the largest open air theatre in the world.
However, it was not his maiden entry into the theatre crew as he had donned the role of Kansa in 1998-99 and 1999-2000. Besides, he enacted the role of ‘Mahamantri’ of Kansa way back in 1993.
He was excited to be back as the main character after a gap of 17 years and sounded confident of infusing life into the character, said Pradhan.
Pradhan, born in a peasant family, had a leaning towards acting since his childhood. He started acting on stage when he was 10 and played various mythological characters like Abhimanyu, Laxman and Jalandhar. This apart, he has enacted Kansa’s role for a whopping 75 times at various stages of the state. He played the role of the demon king for the first time at Chichinda Dhanuyatra in 1994. The actor considers Gopal Sahoo (Eli), who has played the role of Kansa for 23 times on Bargarh stage his guru.
According to reports, the selection for the most important character of Dhanu Yatra began at about 11 am at the DPEP conference hall as per the schedule. While 30 characters applied for the role, 23 of them displayed their skills before the jury.
The names of the aspirants included Gopal Sahoo, Hrushikesh Bhoi who has been playing the character since 2009 and other artistes from Subarnapur district.
The jury members who zeroed in on Pradhan included theatre director Umesh Chandra Satpathy of Bhawanipatna, folk art researcher Shyamsundar Dhar of Sambalpur, renowned drama director Jagadananda Chhuria of Bolangir and actor Debendra Biswal who had played the role of Kansa in Bargarh Dhanu Yatra in the past.
Dhanu Yatra Mahotsav committee secretary Sureswar Satpathy, selection committee convener and additional district magistrate Yudhisthir Nayak and other artistes were present during the selection.
It may be recalled that Hrushikesh, who had been playing the role of Kansa since 2009, sparked a controversy last year after he appeared in Dharmasala Mahotsav of Jajpur in the costumes of the demon king violating the norms of Bargarh Dhanu Yatra committee.
However, he managed to bag the role after tendering an unconditional apology before the committee.
