Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: A ‘Shakespeare Festival’ has been organised in the city at Balaji Mandir Sansthan, Tilaknagar from April 21 to 23. The festival has been held in the city for the past eight years, marking World Book Day and Shakespeare Day, both observed on April 23 globally.
The festival includes a variety of cultural and literary events. They includes "Shakespeare and Hindi Cinema" – an audio-visual lecture by Amol Udgirkar (Pune); "Vastragatha – One Book, One Day" – featuring author Vinay Narkar, with journalist Sanket Kulkarni as moderator; "He Gulmohar Maze" – a musical performance based on the poems of poet Vaibhav Deshmukh, performed by Rahul Dev Kadam, Shanti Bhushan Deshpande, Varsha Joshi, Gajanan Dhumal, Prabodh Joshi, and Shrikant Umarikar and "Tukaram Meets Shakespeare" – a dramatic reading (Abhivachan) by Lakshmikant Dhond, Prof. Dr. Mustajib Khan, Harshavardhan Dixit, and Neeta Pansare.
The event is jointly organised by the Sahitya Sangeet Kala Manch and Balaji Mandir Sansthan (Tilaknagar). The programme is open to all, and the organising committee has appealed to literature and art lovers to attend and participate in the festival.