Taken for granted
After Vithal Rao’s tragic demise, artists express their feelings
By : anisha dhiman
Update: 2015-06-29 00:03 GMT
When a celebrity wears a striking ensemble or goes on an exotic vacation with a bunch of fellow actors, fans on social media sometimes go so crazy that the posts start to trend. But when legendary ghazal singer Pandit Vithal Rao went missing during a family trip to Shirdi earlier this month, there were no hashtags trending or noticeable frenzy despite the manhunt that was launched by the police. When he was admitted to Gandhi Hospital as an unidentified patient, no one recognised the man, who was known as the last of the court singers of the Nizams. Even majority from the Tollywood industry had no clue who the singer was.
While the outpouring of support and condolences have started to pour in after Vithal Rao’s demise, the truth remains that the scenario would have been very different, if it was perhaps a popular personality.
“It’s not just artistes like Vithal Rao, even Madan Mohan, the legendary music director, had a tragic ending. It happens all the time and has more to do with human mentality, where they pay attention to a person only after he has passed away,” says ghazal singer Rashid Khan, who grew up listening to Vithal Rao. “Close to 95 per cent of surviving artistes don’t even have a home over their heads and that’s the tragedy of their life,” he adds.
Kuchipudi dancer Kaushalya Reddy says it’s because people take the art and cultural heritage for granted. She reminisces the time when Raja and Radha Reddy wanted to stage their first performance in the city back in 1966. “Despite their talent, they didn’t have a stage to perform on, because none of the organisations wanted to host them as they ‘weren’t that well-known’,” she says.
It’s this trend that leaves many artistes unrecognised during their lifetime. Referring to Vithal Rao, Kaushalya says, “Many a time, an artiste is never recognised in his lifetime. It’s only when a foreigner notices or when the artist is not alive, that people wake up to the reality. There was also this time when Madonna first wore a nose ring and after that every young girl wanted to get one too. When I used to wear it during my academic years, my classmates used to make fun of me,” she adds.
Artist Surya Prakash, who has been living in Hyderabad for the past 55 years, admits he has never listened to Vithal Rao or met him. “I have been ignorant about Vithal Rao and that’s maybe because I haven’t adjusted to his style of work. As an artist, I can’t expect my work to flourish everywhere and have it touch each and every soul. To be realistic, one can’t always be popular even if their work is exceptionally good. I have come across so many artists whose work is amazing, but they aren’t well-known; everybody has their own limitation,” says the artist.
“Yes, there would have been a lot of hulla-gulla, if it were an actor or a politician and that’s because their profession entails them to be in the public eye more often — they are attending shows, spotted at different events, etc, but people from different creative fields don’t get such mediums, they aren’t necessarily known to be in communication or in the public eye. You can’t really compare us to them either; their profession demands the attention of 90 per cent of the people. Ours depends on personal choice,” he adds.
Awareness, what the artist community suggests, is the need of the hour. “When I used to visit Hyderabad, as I was growing up, I would often see people going out for movies, but never a cultural performance. Classical arts and music is not for the masses, but the niche audiences that understand the finer points. But it’s only when such art is promoted vigorously that people would learn to appreciate and acknowledge it,” says Kaushalya Reddy. “In the present day of commercialisation, it does make a huge difference if an artist is not only good in their work, but equally good in communicating the same to people, through the social media,” adds Surya Prakash.