Media Release
Houston, Jul 15: The legendary Yakshagana artiste Puttur, Dr Shridhar Bhandary will be honoured by BANA (Bunts Association of North America) in the Biannual convention 2013 which is being held at Houston.
BANA has invited Dr Shridhar in appreciation of 55 plus years of service to Yakshagana as a legendry artist, Guru and as an entrepreneur. He will be featured in the iconic Yakshagana show staged by 'Yakshaloka America' during this convention. His disciples Vivaswan R Shetty and Vedavit Shetty will be feature in this show.
At the age of 66 years of age, Dr Shridhar is currently in his 54th year of his energetic artistic journey in the field. Bhandary has been honoured and appreciated by more than 150 state, national and international institutions . He has also been conferred the titles of “Sidilamari” , “Gandugathina punduveshadhari” , “Sididetha gandugali”, “Rangastalada raja”, “Yakshanatya Chatura”, “Shathadhiginagala raja”, “Adbutha Narthaka”
National Appreciations for Shridhar Bhandary has recieved the following :
Appreciation from Dr Shankar dayal Sharma (Ex President of India)
Appreciation from Bhantara Sanga Mumbai
Karnataka yakshagana bayalata academy -2010 Award
Shree Shivarama Karantha Award – 2011
Swasthishree State Award
Karantha Prashasti
Shree Rama Vittala Prashasti
Adkasthala Awards
At the age of 62, Shridhar Bhandary set a record by making his feat of spinning 146 rounds in 5 minutes at Shabaash India reality show on Zee network.
International Appreciations: Appreciation from Karnataka Sanga Dubai
1. Appreciation from Kannada Sangha Bahrain
2. Appreciation from Kuwait Buntotsava
3. Appreciation from Japan
Dr Sridhar has played the roles of Abhimanyu, Bhabruvahana, Shrinivasa, Parashurama, Shreekrishna,Ganamani etc. These characters have given him a very special identity in this art.
For the first time , 'Yakshaloka America' is staging a yakshagana show ‘Devu Poonja’, a play about the great Bunt warrior at Houston
Raghuram Shetty is the founder and director of “Yakshaloka”, the first ever yakshagana troupe in the history of America and in new England in 1994 and also the first to introduce Tenkuthittu style yakshagana in the American continent.
Raghuram Shetty has been trained by Dr Shridhar Bhandary and he is very happy that the current president of BANA, Rathnakar Shetty and the BANA team in Houston, Texas is honouring Dr Shreedhar.
Dr Shridhar Bhandary has been conferred a doctorate from “Academy of Universal Global Peace-USA” for his service in Yakshagana field as Doctor of Indigenous Arts.
Dr Shridhar is currently based in Puttur with his wife Usha S Bhandary and three daughters and son, Deviprakash Bhandary. Deviprakash, is an international karate champion who had represented India in the WUKF (world Karate championships) held at Bucharest, Romania in June 2013.