Shri Chittani Ramachandra Hegde (ಶ್ರೀ ಚಿಟ್ಟಾಣಿ ರಾಮಚಂದ್ರ ಹೆಗಡೆ )
Hailed as a living legend of Yakshagana, Chittani Ramachandra Hegde is the first Yakshagana artist to win the prestigious Padmashri award before winning several awards in Karnataka. His style is so popular that it was called Chittani Gharana.
He started his Yakshagana career when he was just 7 years old, after dropping out of School when he was still studying in II Standard. He started performing in main roles when he was just 14 years old and and still performs on stage even though he is 82 now. He hails from Uttara Kannada district and is popularly known as Chittani among his huge fan-base.
Dr G L Hegde:
Professor at Dr A V Baliga College, Kumta, Director of Kumata Yakshagana research center, A Yakshagana scholar and a seasoned Yakshagana artist himself. He has written many books on Yakshagana and his biographical book “Namma Chittani” is about the life of Shri Chittani Ramachandra Hegde.
[Here I am continuing the part two of my Chittani interview post. Please read the first one before you read this. Here is the link for it]
Part II
Our conversation went on for two hours even as I was clicking his pictures. I asked many questions that I had in my mind. Some were too childish which showed my lack of knowledge in Yakshagana. He explained everything calmly. Some of his replies showed his humorous side.
Yakshagana is always termed as another folk art, but considering the number of years it has been around, can Yakshagana be termed as classical art?
Chittani: Of course yes, when you think what the definition of classical art is, Yakshagana has all the features to consider it as classical art. But it lacks a strong literature. Fortunately nowadays scholars like Dr G L Hegde are putting a lot of effort to document the history, observance, categories, and people of Yakshagana which is a really good sign.
Without any written rule or any type of document how did Yakshagana evolve?
Chittani: That is what we call as heritage (smiles). Yakshagana was there in the memories and passed to next generation after improvisations, different styles. That is how Gharana’s (styles) in Yakshagana developed.
Whys is it that our mythological villain characters such as Ravana, Duryodhana (Kaurava) are most loved only in Yakshagana
Chittani: (laughs in agreement) yes that is the power of Yakshagana. I always loved to be Kaurava . People would come for distances to watch Chittani performing only Kaurava.
Dr G L Hegde: Even today entrance (pravesha: this is similar to Hero entrance in movies) of Chittani cannot be matched by anyone. His entrance is most creative and always different. We would wait in excitement for his entrance to see how different this entrance is from the previous style.
Chittani: (all smiles) Coming back to villain characters, Yakshagana artists always tried to give their best in any role. These main roles be it the hero or villain roles, involved a lot of on-stage improvisations, on-stage debates without breaking the characters which have made Yakshagana so exciting and popular even today
Dr G L Hegde: Shri Sheni (Sheni Gopalakrishna Bhat) was known for his Ravana performances. He has so much knowledge of Indian philosophy that he would change the course of Yakshagana story itself being played while performing on the stage which was nightmare for the other artists unless they manage to counter it
Chittani: Once there was show in Mumbai when Sheni played the role of Bheema and me playing the role pf Kaurava. Our relationship was much deeper than a Guru-shishya. Though I asked him behind the stage to play safe he got into his groove and debated on stage to prove that Kaurava did only one mistake in his life. ( Kaurava , is a villainous character from the great epic Mahabharatha and the main reason for the great war in Mahabharatha) . Somehow I managed to move on and the story went on. But the performance of the day was most memorable and audience will never forget it for their rest of their lives.
How did artistes bring Yakshagana and philosophy together ? Did they study books?
Dr G L Hegde: Philosophy is nothing but experience in life. Yakshagana artists studied them from the elders and gurus but also sometimes by imagination or from their experience in life. There are some incidents where legendary Yakshagana artists improvised the mythical stories which was a hit among the then audiences.
Second tea of the afternoon arrived and that left me imagining those incidents like a movie flashback. I felt so unfortunate to not get chance to see such performances. I might have seen few but not as a grown up to understand these little details of the art. Now I was getting worried about the future. How the youngsters are performing? Can we ever see legends like Chittani and Sheni again? I have seen a couple of Yakshagana performances in Bangalore but they were lacking energy and felt the acting was below average. Also I could sense the artists were stuck to the scripts and often getting confused in the middle of the performance.
Is there any study material or documentation for Yakshagana like our Indian Classical Music has?
Dr G L Hegde: No, there are books, many have written but most of the artists never use.
Don’t you think it is required for future for next generation?
Chittani: Artists should be different. If you try to bind them by a book or a particular style the creativity, variety will be lost. An Artiste should have freedom to try new things, do what he wants. If you click the same type of photos again and again would you enjoy?
(I was laughing out loud)
Chittani: Today thousands are learning Yakshagana. They learn very quickly too. The only problem with this young generation is they don’t watch others performing.
That is what I always thought. We have access to so many free stuff due to digitization. We can watch videos, online tutorials, YouTube, CD/DVDs life is so easy. We never learn the hard way. So the experience of hard learning never gets us. While legendary artists like Chittani have learnt the hard way. Dr G L Hegde has written a biography on Chittani which offers great insight into his life. It not only shows the evolution of Chittani as a matured artist from the age 4 , but it also shows his ups and downs, his drinking habits , his struggle to live, the struggle of Mela’s ( Yakshagana Troupe) to survive. It is a must read for anyone.
Chittani: There is also one more problem. I went to inaugurate an event last week. An 8 year old kid was playing the role of Abhimanyu. His energy, expressions, acting, beat were amazing! But I don’t know after few years he would be a dedicated Yakshagana artist . His parents don’t want him to grow up as artist.They want him to become an Engineer or doctor. So these kids give up or sacrifice and become Engineers to fly away to USA. I blame parents and society for this. That is why we are not able to see many matured artists now.
You have been performing in Yakshagana from past 63 years, now you are 83 years old. You brought the most esteemed award Padmashiri to Yakshagana which was an honor to Yakshagana itself!
Chittani: (interrupting me) Now I feel bored. Nobody is calling me to perform! Everybody wants to honor me, facilitate me!
What is the secrete of your health? You are 83 and still you can perform in Yakshagana which involves high octane energy filled activities like dance and dialogue delivery.
Chittani: (who just lit his second Bidi, shows the bidi to me adn laughs ) Bidi is my secret of my health!
| Rest of the conversations were fun and sometime got very serious. He showed different expressions and I had the privilege to capturing them. Sudarshan was helping me to record on my cell phone. He also showed how to use the bow in 10 different ways when playing Rama! I was humbled by his energy and soaked in his humor. Light was fading and we had to get back to our homes. We said goodbye to the legend and returned with some great memories and knowledge. |
Here is the full pictures of his different moods , just hit play in HD
Youtube link for those who cannot access Vimeo
