Theatre turns strangers into pals

MYSORE: With a serene and greenish space like Rangayana tucked away in a quite corner of the city promising such beautiful ambience to hang out at, the question "Where shall we meet up?" has never bothered this bunch of guys when they've wanted to hangout at a place during free time. And even after four years they met up with each other, they continue to meet at the same spot even to this day, though none in the troupe is from the same college or workplace."And that is what makes our adda and group special. We made friends with each other and meet up at this serene place because of our common interest - theatres," they chorus, when asked what brings them to their adda often.
About eight guys, each from a different stream regularly hangout in the premises of theater repertory Rangayana, where they love discussing and gossiping about everything under the sun from books, movies and college. "But when we gather here, what we mostly talk of is theatres, documentaries or short films making, as that is what our common interest is," says Vivek Raj, a media student from EMMRC, Gangotri, "we have all varieties of people in our group. Students, designers, a yoga trainer and even an advocate. But we all love theaters and movies and meet here at least thrice a week." And once we meet, we spend at least three to four hours at the place and almost the entire day here on Sundays and holidays, say Jagadeesh M and Mahesh Harsha, "We all met each other at Rangayana during the college rangothsava programme. Ever since, we have bonded really well with each other and meet up here even now." However, meeting each other and chitchatting about their interest is not what they have all done. Having discussed so much about movies, theaters and documentaries whenever they met at the adda, the guys have made a documentary on Rangayana's Chinnara Mela this season. Proudly showing off a CD of the readied documentary, Somkumar says, "This is something we always dreamt of and it has now come true," and designer Vinay L and advocate Prakash V chip in, "It feels great that what we planned and dreamt of sitting at this hangout has come to effect."
Now, having spent so much time at the place together, they have all developed a special attachment to it, they say. Says Renuka Prasad, "even in future, we'll continue coming here, whenever we are in Mysore. We want all that we planned and discussed here to come true. Our aim is to start a media house of our own."