Soorya reaches out to budding artistes

The struggles he confronted through the early days of his profession in getting a foothold in theatre, made him make up his thoughts to present a platform for budding artistes to showcase their expertise. He established a black field theatre in Thiruvananthapuram for this objective.

Meet Nataraja Krishnamoorthy, popularly often known as Soorya Krishnamoorthy, who was within the metropolis to take part within the golden jubilee celebrations of Kerala Kala Samithi.

A author, director and artwork promoter, Mr. Krishnamoorthy has revealed 5 books, three screenplays and 15 dramas in addition to conceiving, designing and directing105 stage exhibits, in his profession, spanning over 4 many years. In 1977, he based Soorya Movement, which claims to be the biggest cultural organisation on this planet, with chapters in 38 nations other than 60 centres in India.

“These days an artiste has to spend ₹4 lakh to ₹5 lakh for an ‘arangetram’ and this is killing talent. I do not charge any rent, and in addition I provide light, sound and other amenities free of cost to upcoming artistes,” says Mr. Krishnamoorthy in a chat with The Puucho.

Interestingly, Mr. Krishnamoorthy has no household background in artwork or theatre with a lot of his shut relations and relations being engineers. He had joined ISRO as a scientist/engineer in 1972 and labored beneath scientists like APJ Abdul Kalam, who later turned the President, for 27 years earlier than choosing VRS to dedicate his full time to the promotion of artwork and theatre.

“The greatest advantage for me at ISRO was that my superiors were all fond of theatre and arts. Kalam himself was a great veena player. This allowed me to pursue my passion even when I was working at ISRO,” he remembers.

He had gained a number of nationwide and worldwide awards together with ‘Kala Ratna’ of the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi and ‘Kalaimamani’ from the Government of Tamil Nadu in 2006 for Stage and Craft Direction.

COVID-19 disaster

“I had set up a foot-operated sanitiser dispenser unit to keep the 100 members of our theatre troupe engaged as there is no work for the last one year. Despite my efforts, it pains me to say one member of our troupe had committed suicide,” says Mr. Krishnamoorthy.

“I later found out that he was unable to support his aged parents, which made him take the extreme step. He never told me of his problem and now, he had left his parents at the mercy of others. The pandemic hastaught us a lesson that one should not wait till someone asks for help,” he indicators off.