Ila Arun at the Chaman Lal Memorial Awards

While actors, directors and producers have a bouquet of choices with an award show dedicated to them on every channel, the same cannot be said for the technicians.
Spot boys, as well as the stage lighting, sound, makeup and electrical departments have no avenues where they can garner laurels, and it was with the intention of filling this vaccum that the Chaman Lal Memorial Awards were started to honour the veterans from the backstage industry.Chaman Lal was a pioneer in the field of stage lighting equipments, and he was also one of the leading stage lighting technologists of the country.
The 18th edition of the Chaman Lal Memorial Awards was held in the capital recently, and honouring the backstage masters were Bollywood actor and theatre personality Boman Irani, singer Ila Arun and theatre patron Jatinder Singh Brar.
This year, the Lifelong Contribution To The Theatre World Award went to Raj Bisaria, Excellence In Light Design went to B Raghuveer Holla and Excellence In Makeup went to Hem Singh.
The man behind this venture, RK Dhingra, said, “The Chaman Lal Memorial Society is more than a tribute to a lifelong friend, whom I met 40 years ago, the awards in his name seek to recognize the talents of all those who toil behind the stage.”
The award ceremony was followed by a 40-minute multimedia presentation titled “She”, which was dedicated to women.