Shilpa Mudbi Kothakota (researcher, singer, performer, theatre artiste and documentary filmmaker) and Jogati Ramakka (transgender girl and people artiste from North Karnataka) share an important camaraderie. The two have now devised a live performance, Ramakka and I, that includes themselves. It was offered by Centre for Community Dialogue and Change (CCDC) at the Indian Social Institute, Bengaluru, just lately.
Earlier, additionally they carried out at Suchitra Cinema and Cultural Academy. The live performance, held in an intimate setting, turned out to be a dialogue between the artistes and the viewers.
“We are not always looking to taking it to the proscenium. We are more interested in talking about the song and why it is being sung. It means so much to a community,” says Shilpa, who has additionally learnt to play devices akin to choudki and tuntuni. She even organises choudki workshops to encourage folks to be taught to play it.
Shilpa has all the time been invested in the lives of Jogatis — transgender people and people artistes, devoted to the worship of goddess Yellamma — a marginalised community. In 2012, Shilpa got down to doc the forgotten or vanishing people artwork varieties of Karnataka, and in 2017, alongside together with her husband Adithya Kothakota, established the Urban Folk Project. The intention is to spotlight Karnataka’s lesser-known artwork varieties in city settings and symbolize diversified communities.
Shilpa and Ramakka acting at Centre for Community Dialogue and Change (CCDC) at the Indian Social Institute, Bengaluru
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Special Arrangement
Growing up in Bengaluru, Shilpa felt a disconnect between city and rural life. She received drawn to folklore whereas exploring her personal Dalit-Bahujan roots. It was whereas engaged on a play on the Sri Lankan civil struggle in Puducherry, she engaged with the people varieties of Yellamma, practised in North Karnataka. In this ritualistic efficiency, Jogatis and Devadasis sing and dance, depicting Renuka Yellamma’s life story, narrating how Renuka, mom of Parasurama, reworked into the revered Yellamma.
Talking about the concept behind launching the Urban Folk Project, Shilpa says, “People who earn most from folk performances are not those who have been practising these art forms for generations. There is not much understanding about what is folk and who it belongs to.”
Ramakka Jogati
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Special Arrangement
Shilpa, alongside together with her household, left the hustle and bustle of Bengaluru to make Kalaburagi house and constructed an area for analysis, performances, residency and workshops that delve into the world of jogatis and their lives. Before that, for 2 years, Shilpa and Adithya carried out Yellamma storytelling periods at the Cubbon Park Bandstand in Bengaluru. During the pandemic, by means of the Urban Folk Project, they live-streamed their periods from Kalaburagi.
Shilpa met Ramakka in 2019, when the duo recorded ‘Aadi baa magane Raama, Noduve kannina tumbaa’ (Come, my son Rama, let me take a look at you to my coronary heart’s content material). Little did they know that the tune would go viral and was later included in the Kannada movie, Oorina Gramastharalli Vinanthi. The tune was sung by Jogatis — Ramakka, Manjamma, Anjalimma and Gowramma.
Having spent years with jogatis, Shilpa is conscious of their struggles too — they’re feared but bullied, have interpersonal rivalries and are weak to illnesses. “I have interacted with them so much that I have come to understand what sexuality and gender mean,” says Shilpa.
