'Serial Killers' dominates Purushottam Karandak

PUNE: The MIT College of Engineering (MITCOE) took home the top honours at the prestigious Purushottam Karandak 2011, for their play 'Serial Killers.' The intercollegiate theatre competition, organised by the Maharashtriya Kalopasak, also threw up winners in Aaroh Velankar as best actor (male), Mayuri Kanetkar as best actor (female), among a string of other winners in categories such as scriptwriting, direction and overall coordination.
The Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce (BMCC) was adjudged second overall winner for their play, 'Patient,' while the Marathwada Mitramandal College of Commerce (MMCC) was declared third overall winner for 'Logging Out.'
The final round of the competition was judged by actor Nandu Madhav (of 'Harishchandrachi Factory' fame), entrepreneur Dhiresh Joshi and television production veteran Kiran Chitre.
The Cummins' Women's Engineering College won the best team coordination award for their play, 'Anvay.' Sujay Waghmare from MIT was declared best student playwright for 'Prashnachinnha.' Shweta Pethkar from MITCOE won the best student director award for 'Serial Killers.' She is also the winner of best Individual performance by an actor for her role in the same play.
The best student actor (male) award went to Aaroh Velankar, from MITCOE, for his multiple roles in 'Serial Killer,' while Mayuri Kanetkar from MMCC bagged the best student actor (female) award for her role in 'Logging Out.'
Siddhi Gupte from the Cummins' Women's College of Engineering earned the best verbal presentation (Vachik Abhinay) award for 'Anvay.' 'Dumala', the play presented by the Sinhagad Academy of Engineering, Kondhwa, won the best experimental play award. Suraj Parasnis from BMCC and Abhiraj Mokate from MMCC earned consolation prizes for direction (final round) for 'Patient' and 'Logging Out' respectively.
The winners will be felicitated on September 21 at Bharat Natya Mandir from 5 pm onwards, by Ram Jadhav, president, the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Natya Parishad.