'Nukkad natak' takes a backseat in this LS election

NEW DELHI: In the modern age of cyber space and social media, “nukkad natak” or street play, the traditional way to connect with voters, is losing its relevance as earlier it was through which the politicians used to convey their message and counter their opponents.

Some of the contemporary street play groups claim that the plays are still in trend during election times but have lost the artistic approach.

The party or the candidates themselves approach us during election time for their promotion through event agencies and party workers. But the conflict arises when they delay the payment of the senior/ experienced artists and sometimes even deny to pay after the work is done, as a result, artists nowadays eschew their proposals which eventually downsized a street play team which earlier used to consist of 10-12 members, now has been restricted to five-six members in a team, said Virender Chaturvedi, director of Bhawna theatre group.

“Nukkad natak” has now lost its value, medium and its messages have been twisted as they are being used as a source of promotion only upholding the big banners and tracing the image of the candidates by shouting in massive public gatherings, he added.

Asmita group takes up contemporary issues as the ‘nukkad natak’ became the medium of communicating issues to public and to underline the contours of our time while providing the best of entertainment, said Arvind Gaur, director of Asmita group.

“We don’t perform for political parties or candidates rather focus only on spreading awareness among the voters to follow ethical polling,” Mr Gaur added.

As the capital becomes more globalised, once a popular and a prominent traditional art form, is either diminishing or being assimilated. The “nukkad natak” or the street theatre is an example of this decreased trend.

On the other hand a group of theatre students based in Delhi University formed a street play group namely Saksham, few years back. Keeping it as an aim to get a platform to act on a large scale and as a source to balance their financial needs.

We have performed plenty of street plays and were also a part in past elections for promotions of the candidates during 2014-2015 assembly elections based in Haryana and Delhi, wherein each team member was paid an amount of '1,000 per person a day but was pushed to perform at least 4 to 5 shows a day, said Khushvinder Singh, member of the group. “In addition to that, our performance sometimes used to become difficult as goons of other candidates used to threaten us and even used to hurl shoes at us,” he said.

During the 2015 Assembly elections in Delhi, the AAP, with a group of college-going volunteers stood with placards and posters displaying the party’s election campaign slogan “5 Saal Kejriwal” within the crowd, they also talked of corruption, social issues and campaigned for AAP.

In 2014 Lok sabha elections, the Delhi University unit of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the students’ wing of BJP, had drawn up a detailed campaigning plan to seek votes for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which includes holding around 1,200 street plays. The AAP has continued to target the voters at booth level through street plays and they are planning to organise 3,000 street plays during the 2019 Lok sabha elections.

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