META Lifetime Achievement honour for veteran Arun Kakade

Veteran Marathi theatre artist Arun Kakade, fondly known as 'Kakade Kaka', has been chosen for Lifetime Achievement honour for 2017 at the upcoming Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META).
The 85-year-old theatre producer, who has been the man behind the success of the Marathi theatre group 'Aavishkaar', will be conferred upon the honour at the week-long META Festival that is scheduled to begin here from March 4.
The festival will also be honouring the best of Indian theatre across 13 award categories.
"Kakade's contribution to Indian theatre has been immense and META is privileged to confer him with the Lifetime Achievement Award," organisers said at an event today.

In the past, this award has been given to theatre greats such as Zohra Sehgal, Badal Sarkar, Khaled Chowdhury, Ebrahim Alkazi, Girish Karnad and Heisnam Kanhailal.
The Jury members for META 2017 which were also announced at the event, will include distinguished thespians including actors Dolly Thakore, Seema Biswas and Sachin Khedekar, playwright and actor Mahesh Dattani, along with theatre and film actor Avijit Dutt and performer and drama educator Maya K Rao.

A discussion on 'The Politics of Theatre' today saw popular theatre artists and playwrights like Arvind Gaur, M K Raina, Bishnupriya Dutt and V K Sharma deliberate on how theatre can be a reflection of the times as well as a catalyst for social change.

"In keeping with increasing focus on the digital medium, we began accepting online entries for the very first time for this edition of META. This has further strengthened our commitment to reflect the artistic diversity of our country and provide opportunity and access to the finest talent out there," Sanjoy Roy, who moderated the session, said.
Earlier this month, META announced the 10 shortlisted plays which will be showcased during the festival and judged across various award categories by the jury.
The event that will showcase a diversity of cultural identities and languages represented in Indian theatre, will feature plays in Bengali, Malayalam, Rajasthani and Kannada plays along with Hindi and English.

"META remains India's most definitive platform to recognise theatrical talent. There is a multitude of talent in this art form which is the source code of all performing arts," Jay Shah, Head, Cultural Outreach, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd, said.