Theatre, known for its remarkable performances worldwide is facing crucial financial issues demanding attention, reports Ila Sankrityayan
For the art aficionados of Delhi Akshara theatre has always remained a centre of attraction. But unfortunately this cultural hub is going through a tough time due to non-payment of electricity bill for several months that may plunge the theatre into complete darkness. The electricity department has sent them a bill of rupee three lakh, which according to theatre authorities is a huge amount to be paid in a short period. “We were not able to pay our electricity bill for several months. We asked them to let us pay in installments to which they didn’t agree. We then got a disconnection notice after which we managed to scrape together two lakhs towards the bill. But the new bill again came to about three lakhs. That precipitated the crisis because without electricity we cannot run a theatre. This disconnection notice came on February 12, 2016,” says one of the founder members, Jalabala Vaidya.
“These factors forced veteran thespian Gopal Sharman to stand in front of the audience to seek financial help during a performance last week. Many people came forward to help and one of them gave us a valuable idea of BitGiving crowd funding platform for seeking monetary help. Audiences and fellow artists like comedian Kishor Dayani and Papa CJ are being very generous indeed. But we can hardly expect them to pay in lakhs,” adds Anasuya Vaidya, daughter of Gopal Sharman and Jalabala Vaidya.
Akshara Theatre have toured abroad and in India extensively receiving lot of acclamation and appreciation. Gopal Sharman’s The Ramayana written for the Royal Shakespeare Company got lot of fame in West. And all this helped the theatre to earn well to stay afloat. But in recent years it is going through a financial crunch. Jalabala shares, “We had given 23 per cent of our building on rent to a tenant and though they paid irregularly it helped. However, in 2008 the l&DO revised its guidelines for renting space making the tenants inadmissible. They refused to vacate, we had to go to court for several years to get them out and our finances were harmed.”
Anasuya has personally approached the Delhi Government to get some relief or at least relaxation of time to pay the dues. “I met Kapil Mishra and he was genuinely concerned about the issue and we are hopeful that suggestions will emerge, like making the installment schedule less heavy, or finding a way to stop institutions like ours having to pay commercial rates for electricity,” she added.
According to Jalabala, the Central Government and the Delhi State Government have various schemes for which a nonprofit registered cultural institution can apply for funds. “However, these schemes need a 40 per cent fund guarantee from the applicant. This is hard for us to supply since we do not belong to any big industrialist’s family, or have any very rich godfather. Especially as banks refuse to give us loans create a lot of problems. Corporates give almost no support to the arts, they like to fund hospitals or educational institutions or their own in-house NGOs,” says Vaidya critically raising the hard core issues faced by these institutions.