A popular theatre festival and award ceremony goes online to beat the pandemic crisis

The three-week-long celebration found leading theatre personalities, including the META jury, nominees and awardees, connecting online, and bringing much-needed attention to the artiste community and performing arts space, whose livelihoods have been significantly affected by the pandemic crisis.

The programme was curated and produced by the leading arts  and entertainment company, Teamwork Arts.

Speaking at the award ceremony, Anand Mahindra, Chairman, Mahindra Group said, “ I am proud that in spite of, or perhaps because of, all our current difficulties, tonight’s glittering Awards ceremony transcends the boundaries of an auditorium and becomes accessible to an audience of thousands, right in their homes.  My thanks to everyone who made this happen – the participating theatre groups, the jury members, and the organisers, Teamwork Arts.”

The jury – consisting of playwright, stage director and filmmaker Mahesh Dattani, playwright and novelist Makarand Sathe, actress and a teacher of speech and drama Sushma Seth, actor-writer Vinay Pathak, and  film, television and theatre actor and director Lillete Dubey – viewed the plays online to decide the winners.

This year, over 385 productions were received and viewed by the selection committee and 10 productions from different states of India were nominated across 13 award categories.

Delhi-based Black Box Okhla’s 'For the Record', directed by Nikhil Mehta, won the Best Play and also bagged the highest number of awards at this year’s META with wins across six categories including Best Actor in a Lead Role (Female) for Kriti Pant in her role as Vijaya Radhakrishnan, Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female) for Dhwani Vij in her role as Neeraj Kakker in this complex play about culture and identity.

The play also bagged Best Ensemble and Best Original Script for Nikhil Mehta, Dhwani Vij, Kriti Pant, Krittika Bhattacharjee, Kshitij Mervin, Neel Sengupta, Niharika Lyra Dutt and Prashant Prakash.

The Best Director award was jointly won by Nikhil Mehta (For The Record) and Sahidul Haque (The Old Man).

'The Old Man' (Assamese and Gibberish) from Orchid Theatre and 'Ghoom Nei' (Bengali) from Thakurpukur Ichheymoto bagged four awards each.

A theatrical adaptation of the Hemingway classic, The Old Man, directed by Sahidul Haque, won Best Actor in a Lead Role (Male) for Niranjan Nath’s stellar performance as ‘the Old Man’.

Best Choreography was bagged by Sahidul Haque and Best Light Design jointly won by Tapan Kr Baruah (The Old Man) and Soumen Chakraborty (Ghoom Nei).

A working-class manifesto with quintessential Bengali satire, Ghoom Nei (Bengali), directed by Saurav Palodhi, won Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Male) for Koushik Kar in his portrayal of Akhlaq, Best Innovative Sound Design by Debdeep Mukherjee, Best Costume Design by Turna Das and Apratim Sarkar, apart from Best Light Design.

Malayalam production 'Bhaskara Pattelarum Thommiyude Jeevithavum' from Back stage won for Best Stage Design by Suveeran.

At a special virtual ceremony held earlier, the META 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award was conferred on renowned director, actor, set designer, writer, teacher and Theatre Action Group’s Founder Director, Barry John.

META 2020’s virtual ceremony was hosted by Gitikka Ganju Dhar.

The virtual award ceremony also included a Theatre Critics Conference focusing on critical discourse on theatre in the country and the launch of the first-ever published edition of a ‘META Best Original Script’ (winner of 2019) giving impetus to scriptwriting in contemporary Indian theatre.

The Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards has been instituted by the Mahindra Group as part of its cultural outreach programmes