Image Courtesy: Star of Mysore
Mysuru: From the response received by Swachh Survekshan’s recently concluded “plogathon”, it is evident that street plays are still an effective means to reach out to the masses, even though social media is quite prevalent.
A seven-member team from Bengaluru’s “Chukki Talkies” has been roped in by the Mysuru City Corporation to create and spread awareness about cleanliness and on how to take part in the Swachh Survekshan survey really. Their impressive performances in the prominent thoroughfares of the city have managed to attract many people.
More than 100 people participated in the recently concluded “plogathon” after they witnessed the street plays. H S Mayur, a tenth standard student at Baden Powel School and winner of the “plogathon” found out about the event when his friends and he witnessed a street play near the small clock tower in the city.
Every day, the seven-member team from “Chukki Talkies” performs nine to ten street plays. Apart from performing their plays, they alert the corporation authorities when they come across cases of littering or garbage. Sometimes, the people who witness the plays, inform the artistes about issues such as littering, who in turn inform the corporation authorities. So far, the team, comprising K S Swaroop, Sharan, Pushpalatha, Shivani, Ramesh, Karthick and Pressy, has staged 60 to 70 performances.
Swaroop, leader of the “Chukki Talkies” team and veteran theatre artiste with over 12 years of experience said, “The artistes in our team have an overall experience of nearly 10 to 12 years. Every day, we perform eight to ten plays on an average. Before the plogathon, we used to inform people about the event and cleanliness. Now we focus on citizen feedback, in places where we didn’t get score well during the previous survey. Through our plays, we inform people on how to be part of the citizen feedback. They need to give a missed call to the number 1969 and later, they get a call asking them to answer seven different questions.”
About the “plogathon”, he said, “We were very happy when we found out our impact on the participation in the plogathon. Short and sweet plays are definitely more attractive and have more impact.”
H S Mayur, who never misses a performance from the “Chukki Talkies”, said, “It’s because of the attractive and impressive way in which they spread awareness about cleanliness and the plogathon, that I participated and won the event. The team is really doing a great job.”
