We celebrated the Pre-Birth Centenary Program in memory of Bengali writer Ashutosh Mukhopadhyay (Born on 7th September,1920 and Died on 4th May,1989) by organizing a Drama Festival at Yogesh Mime Academy, Kolkata on and from 20th to 23rd September, 2019 on a Joint venture of Angels Vision Society, New Delhi and Salkia Natyanabis, West Bengal. On 19th September, 2019, a day before, a Press Conference was convened at Press Club of India, Kolkata where Mrs. Sarbani Mukhopadhyay, daughter of the writer Late Ashutosh Mukhopadhyay, Mrs. Meenakshi Bhattacharyay, Secretary, Angels Vision Society, New Delhi and Mr. Shantanu Roy, from Salkia Natyanabis were present to brief the idea and mission of the project after his name to the Media members present at the Press Conference. They also announced that on the 1st day Mr. Rudra Prasad Sengupta, a veteran Drama Activist has agreed to inaugurate the festival as a Chief Guest. A musical opening planned to be made by the reputed Singers Mr. Sagnik Sen and Mrs. Anubha Sen where Mr Debashis Basu, from AIR be the program presenter. On the 2nd day another veteran Drama Writer, Director and Actor Mr. Manoj Mitra agreed to be present as the Honorable Guest and on the 3rd day Mr. Raja Sen, well known film director also agreed to be present and grace the occasion. With minor adjustments of their presence here and there the over all Festival was a grand success by the participation of total six Drama Groups from Kolkata and New Delhi with their colorful presentations. The Press Announcement included that we have a plan to organize the Centenary Celebration next year with more grand some effort and arrangements.
Our Annual Event of the “5th Ashutosh Mukhopadhyay Memorial Bilingual Short Play Competition” was organized on and from 20th to 25th November, 2019 at Bipin Chandra Pal Auditorium, New Delhi. There were 14 Drama Groups from Delhi and NCR in the fray out of which one was non-competitive. On the final day of Prize Distribution an Exhibition show of a Bengali Drama was presented by a Drama Group from Kolkata. On this occasion we were honored to get Syed Muazzem Ali, the then High Commissioner of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh at New Delhi and he was kind enough to spare his valuable time to address the audience and encourage the Drama Groups and also handed over the Mementos to all the participating groups.