JOIN USHow many dance schools for a city?
The Maharashtra government was all set to grant film actor-dancer Hema Malini a 2000 sq m piece of land at a concessional price of Rs 70,000 in Mumbai for her proposed dance academy.
The news was a shock to the average middle class person who cannot realise the dream of his own small flat in the city where he struggles hard to earn his living, because a humble one-room kitchen flat even in a remote suburb of Mumbai costs more than Rs 50 lakh.
The state government does allot land at concessional rates (at 25% of the ready reckoner rates of 1976, according to a 1983 rule) to trusts for educational and cultural purposes. Cultural uplift is a noble cause, no doubt. Not that the BJP government is the first to offer such facilities to celebrity artistes who wish to train young people in their respective arts and sports.
The earlier government of Maharashtra had allotted land to Hema Malini for the same purpose in the 1990s but since the land fell in the Coastal Regulation Zone, it was later taken back. By that time, Hema Malini was accused of destroying the mangroves on the land thereby damaging the environment.
When the media raised this issue of new allotment, Hema Malini argued that it is her right to demand space for spread of Indian culture. After the outcry, the state government, while initially defending the decision, decided to amend the policy. Obviously, the existing policy would not be scrapped until the new revised policy is cleared.
The Maharashtra Housing and Development Authority had to take back the plot allotted to former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar for his Sunil Gavaskar Cricket Foundation Trust 23 years ago for creating transit camps for rehabilitated citizens. Gavaskar had not used the plot for all these years.
In 2011, the Mumbai suburban collector had recommended to the state government to take back the plot allotted to ex-cricketer Sandip Patil for his cricket academy. Film star Madhuri Dixit wanted to make her own dance academy in 2012 and the Municipal Corporation also is said to have identified 100 plots in Mumbai to help her realise her dream.
Commercial gains
Singer Suresh Wadkar and flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia are running their music schools in Mumbai on plots allotted to them by the government. But recently, they were accused of using these premises for commercial gains. Wadkar is accused of sub-letting the premises for wedding halls and a sound recording studio whereas Chaurasia is accused of making a holiday home out of his gurukul.
The land allotted by the government for cultural activities is not supposed to be used for commercial purposes. It was the media that probed into the matter. Does the responsibility of the government end with allotting the plots?
Wadkar is said to have argued that the premises are commercialised because money is needed for the upkeep of such a large property and the government does not pay for the maintenance.
While it is commendable
for the celebrities to contribute to their respective fields of art and sports, by way of training aspirant young people, common man wonders why can’t these rich celebrities raise funds for this noble cause from their own pockets?
If veteran music director Khayyam can celebrate his 90th birthday (18th February) by donating Rs 10 crore from his own earnings to the trust formed to help young, struggling singers and musicians, why do Hema or Madhuri have to wait for the government grants to fulfil their cherished dreams of training the aspiring dancers? What should be the government’s priority – to deal with the civic issues or to lure celebrities by showering grants on them?
The great legacy of art has to be preserved, spread and handed over to the new generation. As for dance academies, there are hundreds of them in Mumbai, some of them very renowned ones, run by dance performers devoted to and focused on seriously training young ones in various classical dance forms.
Some academies have research facilities, some of them are even affiliated to universities. They give stage performances from time to time providing exposure to the students and some of them have been giving expression to current social issues of wider interest through the classical dance forms, thus proving the age-old art to be relevant to the present day.
Often, they have to run from pillar to post to find sponsors, government aids, space and money whenever they want to put up a show or even to run their schools. Why doesn’t the government come forward to help these already existing institutes instead? Why can’t the celebrities come forward to help such relentless efforts by these devoted dance teachers? That would prove to be a great service to the art and culture.
Otherwise, one more question is bound to pop up in the mind of a common citizen, distraught with the day to day struggle to survive – how many dance schools does a city need?
(The writer is a Mumbai-based senior film journalist)