Padma Shri Wareppa Naba: Rituals to Mainstream (2023)

The film showcases the exceptional journey of a visionary creative artist, director, and mentor who has successfully redefined traditional and ritualistic performing arts by making them relevant and contemporary while preserving their originality, raw aesthetics, and uniqueness. Wareppa Naba, Padma Shri (2017), dedicatedly practices different forms of theatre and other narrative arts starting from Indian theatre to folk arts to classical dance to traditional populist open-air touring theatre form of Shumang Leela. He goes to the nooks and corners of the state to find and preserve different narrative art forms practiced as oral tradition as well as rituals and everyday life. His amalgamation of various art forms in his scheme not only makes his bodies of work unique but also saves some dying arts from extinction. Aesthetics of such art forms are dexterously weaved in the carving of the very popular masses theatre of Shumang Leela plays. He remains one of the most respected and reliable pedestals of performing art forms and the Shumang Leela tradition.