With the city hosting some of the biggest art and cultural events, it was quite a surprise to see that rather than being overjoyed, many were disappointed.
Happening at the same time, there was the Hyderabad Literary Festival, Krishnakriti Festival of Art and Culture 2016, Zakir Hussain’s first solo concert in five years, a three-day Art for Impact and Shreya Ghoshal’s live concert.
“Everyone was at a loss — we were sharing sponsors, artists and audiences,” says Prshant Lahoti, founder of Kalakriti Art Gallery that launched the Krishnakriti Art Foundation in 2003 which is dedicated to the memory of his father, late Krishnachandra B. Lahoti. “For the last 12 years, we have had our festival on the same date. I did try to have a discussion with some members, but it didn’t work out,” says Prshant. “It is disappointing because the weekend had some of the biggest events of the year, yet people couldn’t enjoy all of them because they were torn between what to attend.”
Featuring K. Laxma Goud, Thota Vaikuntam and Laxman Aelay among others was an art camp organised by Dr Reddy’s Foundation and Gallery Space. While Hanumantha Rao agrees that he too couldn’t attend events that he had been meaning to, he admits there was no other way. “We had been planning this event for the past four months. And if it was a one-person show the dates could have been accommodated, but we were coordinating with artists from Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Bangladesh and other states,” says Hanumantha.
But at the receiving end were the audiences who had a difficult time deciding what to attend and what not to. With close to 16 different events taking place at the same time, Vaishali Bisht, theatre activist and one of the organisers of the Hyderabad Children’s Theatre Festival (HCTF), says that she missed 99 per cent of them. “There was so much going on that it was either difficult to keep track of the events or even know they were even taking place,” says Vaishali. “I wanted to attend a session by artist Orijit Sen, another session on graffiti, panel discussion on Indian cinema and even the talk by writer Nayantara Sahgal. But I couldn’t,” says Vaishali, maintaining the fact that it was all just a coincidence that the events clashed. “As an organiser of HCTF, I understand that it can be quite difficult to manage the minutiae of such events. And every winter usually becomes a cultural season, but what can be done is to space them out so that everybody can attend the events.”
