Meet Nanda Calcutta, Bengali active on Kannada stage

She is among the many elderly theatre people resuming work after a long break

A Bengali born and raised in
Hubballi, Nanda Calcutta became
a Kannada theatre actor when
she was barely four.

Nanda Calcutta became a Kannada theatre actor as a four-year-old. A Bengali born and raised in Hubballi, she is now 70.

She was inspired by her father Nanni Gopal Gosh, a magician, who told her stories about how creative the world of theatre was.

“My sisters and I started acting when we were very young. They would write the Kannada dialogues in English and rehearse them, but I would write them in Hindi. I was so drawn to Kannada theatre that I soon started to read and write Kannada. Now, my Kannada is better than my Bengali,” Nanda told Showtime from Hubballi.

After eight months, Nanda has resumed work. “It’s great to be back on the stage. “I am a trained classical dancer and singer,” she says. “This helps me bag roles.”

She has played many roles, tragic, comic and villainous. “The toughest is to play a male character because you have to talk and act every inch a man,” she adds.

Nanda is active, and looks forward to more productions. “The pandemic put the brakes on all our activities. It will take a while before plays come back with full vigour,” she signs off.

Not everyone is so upbeat, though. The pandemic has dealt a harsh blow to the livelihoods of women theatre artistes across the state.

They have gone without work for more than 10 months and are struggling to make ends meet.

While women above 60 are getting by on a pension of Rs 2,000 given by the state government, others have borrowed heavily to keep the hearth burning.

Mamta Gudur, a native of Gudur in Nellore district, is 60. And she is active in Kannada theatre in Karnataka.

She has not got a single role since March, and the pension has been her life boat.

“I entered the theatre when I was barely five. I was a heroine in my heyday, and also did comedy, villain and male roles. I was in historical and social plays,” explains Mamta, who would earn between Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 for a show before the pandemic put an end to productions.

“If I had three to four plays a month, we were good to manage all expenses,” she adds.

Eighty-year-old Komalamma Kotturu, a native of Belagavi, fractured her arm and leg during a play. “I have remained confined to bed since. I had this accident four years ago and I haven’t been able to get back to work since. I am being looked after by my daughters but they have had to give up their careers to take care of me,” says Komalamma.

She started as a child artist when she was 10 and has acted in about 300 plays. “Theatre took me across the state and even to Delhi and Hyderabad. It not only gave me a livelihood, but also taught me to bring up my children. I didn’t want them to go through the same hardship that I did and so I made them study,” she recalls.

Her daughter Vasanthalakshmi says, “My mother struggled her way through to make her name in theatre. She sent us to study in a relative’s house because she didn’t want us to follow her into the profession.”

“Looking back, I have achieved a lot in terms of the roles I played, but financially I have no support either from the theatre fraternity or the government,” rues Komalamma.