Cultural contests held to mark Nitin Gadkari birthday

NAGPUR: A daylong mono-act play and singing competitions were organized by the Sanskrutik Aghadi of Bharatiya Janata Party at Shewalkar Sabhagruha, Shankar Nagar, on Friday to mark the 60th birthday celebrations of union transport minister Nitin Gadkari.
Participants of the mono-act plays were divided into two groups — from 7 to 15 years, and 16 and above. The budding artistes showcased their talent which won many hearts.
Atharva Deshpande and Rohit Wankhede of group ‘A’ and ‘B’ respectively bagged the first prize in mono-act play competition.Riddhi Gidhewar and Chaitanya Dubey won the second prize and a memento. Five consolation prizes were also given away. Actor Mukund Vasule and Aasawari Gadekar were the judges for the mono-act play competition. Mithun Hatwar and Sunil Waghmare were in-charge of the programme while Priyanka Thakur was the organizer.
The singing competition, held in the evening, provided the audience a chance to tap their feet on popular Hindi and Marathi songs. More than 150 singers were present. Winners of the singing competition are Sumedha Balpande, Parth Khadatkar, Vaishnavi Mohgaonkar and Shrikant Takle. Earlier, the competition was inaugurated by special guest Ram Narayan Mishra.
Speaking on the occasion, Mahesh Tiwari, president of BJP Sanskrutik Aghadi, said the aim behind holding the programme was to provide budding artistes a platform to show their talent.
Sixteen-year-old Sheetal Pote, who performed in mono-act ‘Jhansi’, said that acting was her passion and therefore she recently joined a workshop to improve acting skills.
Karishma Rarokar said she performed for the first time on the stage and enjoyed the experience. Karishma said that she would like to act in more plays if opportunities came her way.
MLC Girish Vyas, MLA Sudhakar Kohale, corporators Pragati Patil and Sandip Joshi were the guests.
Those who worked for the success of the programme included Amol Nimbarte, Dipti Bhake, Praful Thakare, Narendra Kaushik, Amit Kubde, Sarang Satpute and Atul Shebe, besides others.