Chaos at classical music festival

The Chowmahalla Palace was lit up in all its glory. The artistes were ready to woo Hyderabadis.
And the audience was already trickling in for what was touted to be one of the biggest classical music festivals in the city. But what ensued just hours before Day 1 of the three-day Savai Gandharva Pt Bhimsen Joshi Festival, which boasts of a stellar line-up of classical musicians and dancers, was utter chaos.The event was almost on the verge of being cancelled on the inaugural day, with the cops cracking down on the venue, claiming no permission was taken. The organizers however, claim they had all the paperwork in place. Meanwhile, officials at the Chowmahalla Palace had their own story to tell.
We became scapegoats
The event organizers say the cops put their well-planned show in jeopardy. An official from the organizing committee, says, “We applied for permission long ago. The paperwork that was done on February 17 was just additional formalities and had nothing to do with the permit we applied for earlier. The cops procrastinated and didn’t send the file to the officers and we had to suffer. There seems to be a problem between the Palace officials and the cops and we became scapegoats. Thankfully, the matter was resolved, the event began at 8.30 pm.”
Bad planning, say cops
The police however, refuse to shoulder the blame for the incident. Manish Kumar Sinha, DCP South Zone says, “The organizers delayed in applying for a permission to organize the concert at the Palace. With no go-ahead, we could not let the event take place. One has to apply for the permits much before they start advertising. But in this case, the organizers failed to do so. After seeing the ads, our people had to approach them and tell them to do the needful, but they didn’t. They applied for the license on the morning of D-day!”
The cops say they gave the permission in the last hour as a mark of respect to the artistes. “Since the event boasts of great artistes and is a tribute to Pt Bhimsen Joshi, we decided to give them the permit by 7 pm, after which the event took place,” he says.
Palace officials clueless
Even as the heated blame game ensued between the cops and organizers, the officials of the Chowmahalla Palace say they are not too amused with the proceedings. Says Kishen Rao, director, Chowmahalla Palace, “While lending out the venue for an event, we categorically underline the rules to them, one of which clearly states that the organizers need to get the required permits from the police. So why blame the venue? It is not our job to take permits. We just want to promote cultural events in the city and are more than happy to lend the venue for such great artistes to perform.” A miffed Kishen Rao in fact, adds, “As a policy, if the organizers goof up with permits and other paperwork, we are bound to ban them in future.”
The official version:
Meanwhile, in a damage control attempt, the event organizers quickly decided to call this whole fiasco a ‘communication issue’ and move on, lest the three-day festival stands affected. “There was a communication gap which was resolved by 7 pm on February 17. The artistes, Shrinivas Joshi, who is the son of the late Pt Bhimsen Joshi, Pt Kumar Bose and Pt Rajan and Sajan Mishra were accommodating and understanding and we regret the inconvenience caused. We plan to make the Savai Gandharva Pt Bhimsen Joshi Festival a yearly event in the city,” says Abhijit Bhattacharjee, Grandslaam Network.
Like the cliche goes, all is well that ends well. And finally, it was music which won this fiery battle.