There are several versions of Shakespeare’s Othello, but probably just one in the dialect of Telangana and that was staged in Hyderabad on Wednesday, by Nishumbita theatre group.
Rammohan Holagundi, director of the play, who also heads Nishumbita Theatre Group says, “When I went through various Telugu adaptations of Othello, I found that there were none in Telangana, so we went ahead with it. The translation took us a month-and-a-half.”
The adaptation was based in today’s time in Telangana. “The story is based in a remote Telangana village that deals with a water problem. What happens to the other villages when just one village in Telangana has a river flowing through it is the crux of the story,” says Ram. The play also has a refreshing sprinkle of the puli vesham dance and music by a dapu, two native Telangana cultural elements.
