Pune Festival | Nitin Gadkari and Devendra Fadnavis Will Inaugurate 34th Pune Festival
NpNews24 Online – Pune Festival a confluence of music, dance, drama, art, singing, instruments, sports and culture is celebrating its 34th year. It will be inaugurated at 5 pm on Friday, September 2nd at Ganesh Kala Krida Ragmanch, Pune by Minister for Road and Highways, GOI Hon. Nitin Gadkari and Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra Hon. Devendra Fadnavis. Minister for Tourism and Environment Hon. Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Minister for Higher and Technical Education Hon. Chandrakant Patil and Girish Bapat (MP) will be present as the guest of honour on the occasion. Rajesh Patil, Managing Director of Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation, will also be present. Veteran actor Sunil Shetty will grace the inaugural function.
The 34th Pune Festival has been dedicated to the holy memory of senior industrialist Padma Bhushan Late Rahul Bajaj, who took Pune’s name on the global industry map and was associated with Pune Festival since its foundation, said Krushna Kumar Goyal – Vice President, Pune Festival in a Press Conference today. Dr. Satish Desai – Chief Coordinator, Pune Festival; Abeda Inamdar – Vice President; Maharashtra Cosmopolitan Education Society and Supriya Karmarkar – Deputy Director MTDC were present on the dais.
This year in Pune Festival there will be raft of diverse events. Tributes to Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar, Bharat Ratna Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Padma Vibhushan Pt. Shivkumar Sharma, veteran actor Padma Vibhushan Dilip Kumar and Shivshahir Babasaheb Purandare, ‘All India Mushaira’, Veteran Actress and Danseuse Hema Malini’s (MP) ‘Ganga’ ballet, Ashok Hande’s ‘Azadi 75 – Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav’, Vocal concert by India’s veteran singer Rahul Deshpande and ‘Miss Pune Festival’ competition will be presented at Shri Ganesh Kala Krida Rangmanch. Besides this, various cultural programs will be held at Balgandharva Rangmandir and Yashwantrao Chavan Natyagruh. Women’s Painting Competition and Exhibition at Balgandharva Kaladalan, Ugavate Taare and Indradhanu at Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Cultural Bhawan, Women’s Cooking Competition, Japanese Flower Decoration and Mangla Gauri Khel at Hotel Tarwade Clarks Inn and various sports competitions at different venues will be the spectacular highlights of 34th Pune Festival.
Pune festival’s patron, actress and danseuse Hema Malini (MP) will perform Ganesh Vandana at the inaugural function this year and her ‘Ganga’ ballet on the second day. At that time industrialist Rahul Bajaj was a Rajya Sabha MP. He also gave great support to Pune Festival. In the last 34 years, due to swine flu in 2009 and Corona in 2020 and 2021, the Pune Festival did not take place. In the remaining 31 years, Hema Malini has presented her ballet or Ganesha Vandana or Shiva Stuti in the Pune Festival for 29 years. She presents the first performance of each ballet at the Pune Festival. She also launched the dance career of her daughters Isha and Ahana at the Pune Festival.
With the inspiration of Lokmanya Tilak, the Ganeshotsav festival spread widely throughout Maharashtra. Inspired by it in 1989, the then Chairman of Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation, Mr. Suresh Kalmadi started the Pune Festival. ‘Pune Festival’ a 10-day cultural festival run through a private sponsorship is celebrating its 34th year, is considered to be the biggest cultural festival in the country. It is considered as the ‘mother of all festivals’. Bharat Ratna Swarabhaskar (Late) Pt. Bhimsen Joshi was the Patron of the Pune Festival from the very beginning.
The Pune Festival is organized jointly by the Pune Festival Committee, Puneite citizens, Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation and Department of Tourism, Government of India. The entry for all events of the Pune Festival is free.
The installation of Pune Festival’s Ganesh will take place at 10 am on Wednesday, August 31st at Hotel Saras, Nehru Stadium at the hands of Mrs. And Mr. Vikram Kumar, Commissioner PMC and Mrs. and Mr. Sandeep Karnik, Joint Commissioner of Police. Actress Manasi Naik will be present on the occasion. Vedmurti Pt. Dhananjay Ghate Guruji will officiate the ceremony.
The achievers excelled from various fields in society are felicitated with ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ and ‘Pune Festival Award’ during the Inauguration ceremony. This year, senior advocate Adv. S. K. Jain, Senior Director Padma Bhushan Sai Paranjape, NAAC Chairman Dr. Bhushan Patwardhan, renowned classical singer Rahul Deshpande and director Praveen Tarde will be felicitated with the ‘Pune Festival Award’ at the inaugural function. Senior educationist and founder of Symbiosis Padma Bhushan Dr. S. B. Mujumdar will be felicitated with ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ at the function.
Every year the Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal in Pune celebrating their centenary year is felicitated at Inauguration function. This year Nav Chaitanya Mandal (Deccan Gymkhana) and Rajarshee Shahu Mandal (Shukrawar Peth) will be honored at the Inauguration Function.
Pune Festival is sponsored by Kohinoor Group, co-sponsored by Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation, National Egg Coordination Committee, Syska and associate-sponsored by Bharat Forge and Panchshil.
Grand opening ceremony
The opening ceremony will be spectacular like every year. It will commence with Shahanai recital by Tukaram Daithankar and the lightening of lamp and aarti on the beats of the Dhol Tasha. Actress and danseuse Hema Malini (MP) will kick off the inaugural function by performing Ganesh Vandana along with 25 co-artists based on new songs by veteran singer Shankar Mahadevan. Afterwards Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar will be tributed by her niece and singer Radha Mangeshkar by performing the songs ‘Mogra Phulala’ and ‘Jai Dev Jai Dev Jai Shivarai’. Bharat Ratna Swarabhaskar (Late) Pt. Bhimsen Joshi’s disciple Pt. Upendra Bhatt will pay homage with Abhangas ‘Teerth Vitthal’ and ‘Maze Maher Pandhari’. 40 boys and girls of ‘Swaraswapna’ group aged 7 to 22 years, will pay tribute to Bharat Ratna (Late) Lata Mangeshkar and Padma Vibhushan (Late) Pt. Shivkumar Sharma with a musical violin concert. The musical composition is by Swapna Datar. Lata Didi’s famous song ‘Radha Na Bole Na Bole Na Bole Re…’ from the 1957 film ‘Azaad’ and ‘Ja Tose Nahi Bolu Kanhaiya’ based on Raag Hansdhwani, performed by the duo ‘Shivahari’ a classical bandish from Drit Trital in the ‘Jala’ style will be performed on the violin.
This year, 60 Warkaris will present a special program of Dindi called ‘Khel Mandiyela’. These warkaris will take the dindi from the audience and will perform Ringan and different plays with pakhwaj, veena, taal and flags on the stage while chanting Jnanoba-Tukaram. This performance will showcase the vision of wari. It has been directed and presented by Dr. Bhavarth Ramchandra Dekhane and Avdhoot Gandhi, priest of Dnyaneshwar Mauli. This will be followed by ‘Cultures of India’, a program showcasing the culture of the states of Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Punjab through dances.
Presented by ‘Pinga’ (Marathi), ‘Ghumar’ (Rajasthani) and ‘Bhangra’ (Punjabi), the three actresses Meera Joshi, Madhura Deshpande and Nupur Daithankar will present dance innovations.
After this, in the music and dance program ‘Aapla Atulya Bharat’, on the melodious tune ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’, artistes from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Manipur, Mizoram and Kerala will showcase the culture, traditions, costumes, ornaments, traditional instruments and various dances of their respective states. These forms will be presented together to create a vision of national unity. Satriya dancer Dr. Devika Borthakur, Bharatnatyam dancer Dr. Parimal Phadke along with more than 60 artists from different states are participating in this. It is directed by Dr. Devika Borthakur and Kunal Phadke, It is conceptualized and coordinated by Karuna Patil. A fusion of Lavani from Maharashtra, Garba from Gujarat, and Tollywood will be presented at the conclusion of the inaugural cultural programme ‘Lavani Ek – Roop Anek’ with spectacular dances by dancers Bhargavi Chiramule, Sharwari Jamenis, Arya Pardeshi and Mansi Naik. Choreographer Nikita Moghe has choreographed it.
Yogesh Deshpande will be the Marathi compeer of the Inauguration ceremony while Durriya Shipchandler will be English compeer.
All India Mushaira
The opening ceremony on 2nd Sept. will be followed by the All India Mushaira at 9.00 pm at Ganesh Kala Krida Rangmanch. The famous Urdu poets such as Dr. Popular Meeruthi (Meeruth), Jauhar Kanpuri (Kanpur), Dr. Nusrat Mehdi (Bhopal), Shakeel Azmi (Mumbai), Hasan Kazmi (Lucknow), Kunwar Javed (Rajasthan), Typical Jagtiyali (Telangana), Surinder Singh Shajar (Delhi), Waris Warsi (Uttar Pradesh), Vibha Shukla (Benaras) and Ashfaq Nizami Maruli (Jalgaon) are participating in it. It will be moderated by Dr. Mahtab Alam (Bhopal). Former vice Chief of Indian Army and former Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Zameer Uddin Shah will be the Chief Guest. President of Maharashtra Cosmopolitan Education Society P. A. Inamdar and Vice President Abeda Inamdar have coordinated this.
Hema Malini’s ‘Ganga’ ballet
Renowned actress and danseus Hema Malini is continuing the tradition of presenting ballet at the Pune Festival this year as well, with her ballet innovation ‘Ganga’, which will delight the fans. Saturday, 3 Sept. at 8 pm the program will commence at Shri Ganesh Kala Krida Rangmanch. The ballet focuses on water, river and environment conservation. The ballet has been created by Hema Malini’s Natya Vihar Kalakendra. Presented in an audio-visual format with 50 co-artists, the details of how the journey of the Ganga took place in different eras will be revealed through narration and dance. The music is by Padmashree Ravindra Jain while Suresh Wadkar, Kavita Krishnamurti, Shankar Mahadevan, Mika Singh, Rekha Rao, Hema Desai and Alap Desai have rendered melodious playback singing for the program. Aashit Desai and Alap Desai have also supported to the music. Dance direction is by Bhushan Lakhandri, costumes by Ram Govind and some lyrics by Shekhar Awasthi.
‘Azadi 75’
Sunday, 4th Sept. at 8 pm a special program ‘Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav – Azadi 75’ conceptualized, produced, written and directed by Ashok Hande will be presented. 250 artistes are participating in this grand program and the great fight for the freedom of the country will be presented through music, songs and dances, including revolutionaries like Mangal Pandey, Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi and Tatya Tope of the freedom struggle of 1857. It will be a musical saga of Indian independence. The grandeur and spectacular lighting scheme throughout the arena, a mood of freedom and tricolor will create magnificently.
Concert of Rahul Deshpande
Monday, 5th Sept. at 8 pm India’s prominent singer Rahul Deshpande will present a valiant program of melodious songs. In this, classical and sub-classical songs, drama songs, abhang, classical ghazal, cine music etc. will be performed and the musical concert will set the mood of fans.
‘Miss Pune Festival’ competition
The ‘Miss Pune Festival’ competition, which has become a subject of attraction in the whole country, will be held this year on Tuesday, 6 Sept. at 4.00 pm. The competition for young women between the age of 18 and 25 years focuses on beauty, personality, social and family awareness. Various test rounds of this competition were held and 20 young ladies are selected for the final round. Judges of international fame, fashion designers, photographers, some producers from Bollywood and Marathi film industry will be present on this occasion. This being the 9th year of this pageant, beauty pageants Varsha Rajkhowa (Miss Scuba International), Steffi Shaji (Miss Scuba India), Tanvi Kharote (Miss Earth India), Apoorva Chavan (Miss Diva Universe, Best Talent), Pooja Kudale (Miss Citadel), Falguni Zende (Miss Campus Princess), Pooja Birari (Sakal Maharashtra Beauty Queen, lead role of Pallavi in ‘Swabhiman’ serial on Star Pravhav channel), Yuva Kankaria (Miss Pune 2022), Ketaki Kadam (Miss Scuba India 2nd Runner Up), Sania Chaudhary (‘Sang Tu Ahes Ka’ Lead Role on Star Pravah), Purva Shinde (role of ‘Jaydi’ in ‘Lagir Jala Ji’ on Zee Marathi), Amrita Deshmukh (lead role in ‘Sweety Satarkar’), Isha Hublikar (Ranka’s model on hoardings), Srishti Tare (Ranka’s model on hoardings), Ankita Lande (lead role in the movie ‘Girls’), Namrata Jadhav (role in the show ‘Crime Patrol’) are shining as beauty stars and models at the national and international level as well as on national and state TV channels. Fashion and Dance Choreographer, Grooming Mentor, Show Director and Costume Stylist Jui Suhas has guided the preparation and training of all the female contestants. The program has been compiled by Supriya Tamhane.
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