Veteran theatre director MK Raina walks out of Jaipur Literature Festival session
Veteran theatre director and actor MK Raina on Friday walked out of a session with singer and fellow actor Ila Arun on day two of Jaipur Literature Festival on Friday.
The two colleagues were promoting their memoirs — Raina has written “Before I Forget” and Arun has recently come out with “Parde Ke Peechhey” — at the session “Memories from the Screen and Stage”.
At one point during the conversation, Arun was discussing her latest play “Peer Ghani”, which is adapted from legendary playwright Henrik Ibsen’s “Peer Gynt” and is set in Kashmir.
Raina, who has grown up in Kashmir, then said he has been seeing less and less of the Valley in Indian theatres.
“I’m sorry, I see bad films of Kashmir, accusing Kashmir of all kinds of things, lousy films... Kashmir is not being represented at all because they don’t know that state, is my assertion,” he added.
A while later, he walked out of the session as Arun was performing a scene from her play “Peer Ghani”.
It caused a flutter with people wondering what had happened.
Someone then told Arun about Raina’s departure from the session. “Albert Pinto ko gussa kyu aya?” Arun responded, a recall of Saeed Mirza’s 1980 film “Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyoon Aata Hai”.
The session was moderated by curator Asad Lalljee.
Raina’s memoir “Before I Forget” chronicles the highs and lows of his life and his experience of growing up in Kashmir. Arun’s book “Parde Ke Peechhey” documents her extraordinary life, both onstage and behind the scenes.