Kishan Reddy seeks 10 acres for Sangeet Natak Akademi centre

The proposed cultural centre could help in propagating and preserving Telangana and Andhra Pradesh heritage on music, folk, theatre, puppetry, tribal arts, etc.

Union Minister for Tourism, Culture and Development of Northeast Region and Secunderabad MP G. Kishan Reddy has requested Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to allot 10 acres of land for setting up of the regional centre of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, in the heart of Hyderabad on Wednesday.

In yet another official letter seeking land from the government for a Central government initiative, the Union Minister said if the government allocates any ‘pre-existing’ infrastructure in the form of buildings with sufficient office space, the proposed new cultural centre could be turned into a state-of-the-art facility towards promotion of performing arts and culture at the earliest.

Mr. Kishan Reddy said the SNA, an autonomous body of the Culture Ministry, with a mandate to preserve and propagate the vast cultural heritage of the country expressed in varied forms of music, dance and drama, has two constituent units – Jawaharlal Nehru Manipur Dance Academy at Imphal and Kathal Kendra in Delhi.

The Akademi also has five centres – Kutiyattam Kendra in Thiruvanantapuram for preserving the Sanskrit theatre of Kerala, Sattriya Kendra in Guwahati for promoting Sattriya tradition of Assam, Northeast Centre in Guwahati for preserving the traditional folk art forms of the region and Northeast documentation centre in Agartala and Chhau Kendra in Chandankiyari for promoting Chhau dances of eastern India.

Similarly, the proposed cultural centre could help in propagating and preserving Telangana and Andhra Pradesh heritage on music, folk, theatre, puppetry, tribal arts, etc. A library, documentation centre and auditorium should be part of the infrastructure, he said.

The Minister said art forms like ‘Perini Thandavam, Oggu Katha, Chindu Bhagavatam’ as well as dance forms like ‘Gusadi, Lambadi, Dhimsa’ of Telangana would receive a fillip when the new Sangeet Natak Akademi comes up as it would be serving as a bridge between the northern and southern parts of the country.