Three-day Kittur Utsav begins today

Kittur Utsav to be inaugurated Mon. Cultural progs, sports events, lecture sessions on Kittur royal house. All-woman session on 1824 war of Independence. Hamsalekha, Sanchit Hegde, Shamita Malnad to perform. Ministers, legislators, leaders to attend. Resource persons to speak on main stage. Marathon, kabaddi, volleyball, cycling, wrestling to be held. ₹2 crore released by State govt.

The three-day Kittur Utsav will be inaugurated in Kittur on Monday. Apart from cultural programmes and sports events, it will have lecture sessions in which historians who have worked on the royal house of Kittur will speak.

An all-woman special session will focus on the war of Independence that was fought by Rani Channamma against the British in 1824, three decades before the first war of Independence in 1857.

Cultural programmes will be presented by film music director Hamsalekha and team on Wednesday night. Sanchit Hegde and team will perform on Monday night. Shamita Malnad and team will perform on Tuesday night.

Various local artists will perform songs, dances, plays and folkart forms on all the three days.

On Monday morning, Ministers Satish Jarkiholi and Lakshmi Hebbalkar will flag off the festival in Kakati, the village in which Rani Channamma was born and in Kittur where she ruled.

Minister for Kannada and Culture Shivaraj Tangadagi and legislators and leaders are expected to attend.

On Tuesday, resource persons Santosh Hangal, Prajnya Mattihalli and Basavaraj Chinagudi will speak on the history of the Kittur dynasty on the main stage inside the fort premises at 10 a.m.