After furore, Pune theatre group spikes 'diktat'

Pune (Maharashtra), Dec 13: After a massive outcry in theatre and creative circles, a Pune-based organisation has withdrawn its two-day old 'diktat' banning college students from depicting 'sensitive topics' at its mega competition scheduled in Feb, a top organiser said here on Friday.

On Wednesday (December 11), the Firodiya Karandak, one of the reputed state-level inter-college theatre competition-cum-festival organisers issued a decree, restricting students from performances based on nearly three-dozen contemporary topics.

These included: communal subjects, topics pertaining to Hindu-Muslims, Jammu & Kashmir, Article 370-35A revocation, the Ayodhya verdict, Babri Mosque or Ram Mandir, themes centering around India-Pakistan relations, etc.

This sparked a huge uproar among artistes, the theatre world, film fraternity and other creative fields who termed the controversial edict as an attempt to curb freedom of expression at the prestigious 45-year old annual competitive stage festival.

"It has been misunderstood and resulted in this unnecessary debate. We have withdrawn the new regulations today and the competitive festival will proceed as in the past," the Trustee of Socio Economic Development Trust, Swapnabhumi, and the founder-patriarch of Firodiya Karandak, Suryakant Kulkarni told IANS.