A Master Puppeteer |
Of the four categories of puppetry popular in India, the rod puppet is the most difficult to manipulate because of the weight of the three feet tall puppets and the iron rods connected to the limbs of the puppets. Mr.Ranganatha Rao, a world-renowned puppeteer took it upon himself to develop this form of traditional puppetry. Mr.Rao received training in the art of traditional marionette theatre of Karnataka from his grandfather Narasingha Rao who was a professional puppeteer. He brought it out of the portals of the temple and took it to the educational institutions for a well-balanced mode of entertainment and communication. He conceived new puppets with indigenous raw material and resurrected plays of traditional repertoire.
Mr.Rao and his team were selected to attend various puppet festivals in Japan, California (US), Switzerland, Poland and Austria. At the national level he has participated in the puppet festivals at New Delhi and Hyderabad. He was appointed the director for the children’s puppet festival during the SAARC festival at Bangalore. Also he was the director for the National Puppet Festival, Puthali’91 in 1991 in Bangalore. He has worked for Janapada loka, Karnataka and has set up a multi purpose puppet theatre there.
For the year 2012, he was conferred with the prestigious State Award "Parti Subbaiah Award" from the Karnataka Yakshagana Bayalata Academy Although Ranganatha Rao has stopped giving puppet performances now, he can be reached for consultataion and references on the puppetry field at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it |