Revanth R Malige

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA under Explorations will explore the idea for a play in Kannada, around language politics, through the form of absurd theatre engaging with different Kannada dialects. Revanth R Malige is the Coordinator for this project. 

Revanth R Malige is an actor, singer and theatre director with over ten years of experience. He started acting in Kannada plays and films as a child actor. Originally trained as an engineer, Revanth has undergone actor training and theatre training through prestigious workshops. He won the Karnataka State Best Child Actor Award for his performance in the film Daatu in 2006. In 2021, Revanth founded a theatre troupe called Karana Theatre, and adapted, directed, and produced the play Maanishada written by Girish Karnad. Given his experience, Revanth R Malige is best placed to be the Project Coordinator of this Foundation Project of IFA.

This project titled Kannadigalu-The Mirrors, will explore the idea of a play in Kannada, through absurd theatre in different dialects, to unravel the politics of language, in the wake of language standardisation. The absurd play script will be developed around a circular plot, of an everyday traffic situation - the wheel of a vehicle getting stuck in a pit - in which unnamed characters, who don’t fully comprehend each other, will speak in different dialects of Kannada, such as the standard dialect, Raichur dialect, Hassan dialect, among others. As an Explorations project, the artistic process will be that of devised theatre, through improvisation with the actors, instead of writing the play and rehearsing it. The project has been inspired by an instance of literary translation in Kannada. There was a committee formed to discuss the possibility of translation of a popular Kannada novel, Kususmabale written by Devanooru Mahadeva, to Kannada itself. The reason for setting up a committee to discuss the translation of a novel from Kannada to Kannada itself, is because Devanooru Mahadeva wrote the novel in the rawest dialect spoken by the people in his village in Chamarajnagar. This instance compelled the Project Coordinator to be self-reflexive about the standard dialect of Kannada that is being used in the high culture context of theatre in Bangalore, in comparison to the dialect in his native village in Tumkur-Mandya border. 

The outcome of the project will be a play of 60 to 70 minutes in duration. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be a video recording of the play, and audio-visual documentation of the artistic process.

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Arts Practice programme in the manner in which it tries to address the question of language politics in the context of multiple dialects being standardised as a part of modernisation, and how the fault lines of linguistic sub-nationalism can be revealed through the devise of absurd theatre.

IFA will ensure that the implementation of this project happens in a timely manner and funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm by convening an online gathering of artists coordinating Explorations projects. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with Trustees.

This project is made possible with support from Sony Pictures Entertainment Fund.