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Winning act

PHOTO: S.S. KUMAR

STAGECRAFT Sunil Vishnu

Being idealistic about their art is not what made Evam one of the country’s most successful young theatre companies — it was their pragmatic decision to treat theatre like any other business. So, it’s quite appropriate that Sunil Vishnu, CEO of Evam, has just been announced as the India finalist for Young Performing Arts Entrepreneur ‘09.

“I think Evam’s edge was the fact that nothing like it exists in India, conceptually. It’s a theatre group that is not dependant on the Government or corporates. We are more or less self sufficient,” says Sunil.

“My presentation had a lot to do with the performing arts industry,” he says, discussing his interview in Kolkata, where he competed against seven other arts entrepreneurs from across the country. (The contenders were: from the field of theatre — Pawan Kumar B.P, Sachin Kamani and Jehan-Sam D. Manekshaw, from the field of dance — Vikram Iyengar, Paramita Saha and Anand Majumdar and, from the music arena Santosh Kumar.) “The core idea in my presentation was that in India most creative artistes are kind of becoming self-styled entities. There’s no management or business for art. That’s not the case in the U.K. or the U.S.”

This award is part of the Young Creative Entrepreneur (YCE) Award programme, which forms the core of the Creative Future Network. It focusses on rewarding young creative entrepreneurs, recognising the important role they play in the development of a competitive and sustainable creative economy. This includes producers, festival directors and developers of performing arts websites.

Winners from eight to 10 countries in the British Council Network will attend the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Sunil will compete for the International Young Performing Arts Entrepreneur Award, which includes a prize of £ 5,000 to be spent on a collaborative project with the British Council to develop business links with the U.K.

On what the award means for Evam, Sunil says: “This is a great chance to shout from the rooftops and say we exist, and that theatre is profitable and people should take it up.”

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