Bhopal: Theatre artists in the city have demanded that the next director of MP School of Drama (MPSD) should be from the MP. They are now using all channels to mainstream their demand including social media and mouth publicity.
MP School of Drama, a theatre training institute, is an autonomous body under Ministry of Culture, Government of MP. MP cabinet set it up in 2011, and the tenure of its first director, Sanjay Upadhaya, expired in 2015. He is currently on a two years’ extension.
The culture department issued an advertisement for the post of the director in June 2018 and received 150 applications from different parts of the country. The theatre artists have even suggested some names for the post including Jayant Deshmukh, Alok Chatterjee, Arun Pandey, Tikam Joshi, Lokendra Trivedi, Rajiv Verma, Sanjay Mehta, Vani Sharad.
However, some artists also said that they have no problem whether the candidate is from MP or outside the state, but the candidate must be competent who would work for the welfare of art and artists of the state.
Nitin Tejraj
I want that the next director of MP should be from MP. The institution is run by MP government for artists of the state. It is difficult to understand that why our government is trying to appoint its director from some other state. I believe that an artist should go national before an institution. After all, ye MP ke tax ka paisa hai…There are various artistes in MP who deserve the post. But I think Jayant Deshmukh and Alok Chatterjee are more suitable.
Saroj Sharma
See, there is nothing wrong if the candidate for the post is from MP. The appointment should not be free of local politics. I think the candidate, whether they are from MP or outside, should be selected on the basis of calibre. The decision should be left to the member of the panel. Who are we to decide this? Did the government ask our opinion? Did Ashok Vajpeyi ask us before appointing BV Karanth and J Swaminathan in Bharat Bhavan? So we should not involve in local politics, rather we should focus on our work.
Tariq Dad
I think, the director of MPSD should be from MP. I don’t want to take any particular name for the post. But there are few names like Jayant Deshmukh, Alok Chatterjee, Arun Pandey, Tikam Joshi, Lokendra Trivedi and Vani Sharad who deserve the post. Right now MPSD requires a good administrator (not teachers ) who could run the institution in an efficient manner. Many a competent faculties are already present in the institution.
Bishna Chauhan
It is MP’s institution, then why its director should not be from MP? Are there no artists in the state who are eligible for the post? Are only National School of Drama (NSD) the pass-out artist eligible for this post? It doesn’t mean that I am against the artists of NSD or other states. I think, we should also give a chance to the artistes from MP, so that they could prove and judge themselves. No doubt, Jayant Dada is a deserving name for this post. He is well experienced.
Ashok Bulani
I think, the first condition should be eligibility of the candidate for the post and it would be best if the candidates belong to MP. It is like sone pe sughaga… If the candidate is from MP, it will be able to do justice with both the art and the artists of MP. There are various artists who are capable for holding the post including Jayant Deshmukh, Sanjay Mehta and Alok Chatterjee. Rajiv Verma is also a good candidate but his age is 62 plus.
Tanaji Rao
We have no problem if the candidate from MP is selected for the post. But we just want the candidate should be of that calibre who could think for the welfare of art and artistes. We are artist and we should think above the caste, religion and region. So it doesn’t matter to us whether the candidate is from Bihar or MP or other states across the country? We should not promote regionalism. After all, we are Indian citizen.
