An adaptation of ‘Othello’, ‘Karrigadu’ is the first play to be staged in Telangana Telugu

Nenu oka shristi shristinchanu

Nenu oka adhipathine

Nenu yugaanne

Nenu chaavune

Nenu narkaanne

Thus opens Rammohan Holagundi’s adaptation of William Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello, in Telangana Telugu. Titled ‘Karrigadu’ the playtakes the local Telangana folk flavour to portray the intense love between of Karrigadu and Sitamma. Beyond the regional flavour in language, the play has been adapted to highlight Telangana’s struggle for water which is to be fought by revolutionary warrior Karrigadu.

Over months of deep thought, apprehension and after perusal of Telugu translated works of Othello and other works of Shakespeare, Ram decided to work on his own script. “The translated works are literal translation of English and that wasn’t what I was looking for. As a team, a major hurdle was to write the script in Telangana dialect and then speak in it. After refining my original script with the help of a few of my students who speak chaste Telangana, we tackled the toughest part — speech correction of our actors. Being city-bred, it is common to mix a lot of languages as we speak and that becomes thick in our accent. But nothing is impossible with practice. So, we were able to get the accent right and we began our rehearsal,” recalls Ram.

Karrigadu will be Nishmubita’s first adapted play in Telangana and Ram Mohan Holagundi strongly feels it is the first original adaptation of any theatre group from the city. Known for their experimental plays and themes, Ram’s Nishumbita has made use of a lot of elements like the use of various dances to establish the Telangana cultural connect with the audience.

“We are an experimental theatre group and don’t stick to a particular pattern. That gives us a lot of potential to include various talents. For Karrigadu we have made use of mime, physical theatre, ballet and also included the dappu dance and Puli vesham. With all this, the play is a true reflection of the Telangana culture,” adds Ram.

Can audience establish the Othello connect with Karrigadu? Ram answers, “No, they won’t. It is a complete adaptation, except that discerning audience will see traces of Diego, his aggression and anger in the almost two-hours play.”

With Karrigadu having around 27 characters, most actors play several roles to keep the team small. Ram elaborates, “ That way, we don’t have to worry about the dialect. It’s the dialect that makes this play special.”

The play will staged today at Ravindra Bharati, 7:30 p.m.