3-day long Ellora-Ajanta International Festival begins on Feb 25

-‘Purvarang’ curtain-raiser of the festival organised on Feb 12.

Lokmat News Network

Aurangabad:

The district collector Astik Kumar Pandey today announced the beginning of the three-day-long Ellora Ajanta International Festival 2023 at Sunehri Mahal from February 25 to 27. The festival is being held after 2016 (seven years).

The festival is jointly organised by the district administration, festival organising committee and the state’s Directorate of Tourism (DoT).

The press conference was also attended by the state commissioner (Right to Services) and honorary advisor to the festival committee) Dilip Shinde, commissioner of police (CP) Nikhil Gupta, municipal commissioner Abhijeet Chaudhari, Dilip Shinde, superintendent of police (SP) Manish Kalwaniya, GST joint commissioner G Shrikant and Zilla Parishad CEO Vikas Meena.

Pandey said, “The festival is a platform to promote and propagate Indian art, dance, literature-culture and life. This year, internationally acclaimed artists will perform classical, semi-classical vocal, dance and other forms of performing arts during the festival. The dignitaries who will be presenting their extravaganza performances included Ustad Rashid Khan, Ustad Shujaat Khan, Mahesh Kale, Ravi Chari, Shivmani, Vijay Ghate, Sangeeta Mazumdar and Shankar Mahadevan.”

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A pre-event concert ‘Purvarang’on Feb 12

The organisers have decided to organise a pre-event concert ‘Purvarang’ (as a curtain raiser to the Ellora Ajanta International Festival) at Sant Eknath Rang Mandir (Osmanpura) on February 12 at 6.30 pm. Noted danseuse Soniya Parchure and her group will perform a ballet dance. It will be followed by ‘Sanj Amrutachi’, a musical event of Marathi, Hindi and Sufi songs presented by Shalmali Sukhtankar, Ashish Deshmukh, Mandar Apte, and Madhuri Karmarkar. The event will be compered by Dhanashree Damale.

The union minister of state for Railways Raosaheb Danve and the union minister of state for Finance Bhagwat Karad will inaugurate the event on Sunday, while the guardian minister Sandeepan Bhumre will preside over. The state minister of Agriculture Abdul Sattar and minister of Cooperation and Social Justice Atul Save will be the co-presidents, and the leader of the opposition in the Legislative Assembly Ambadas Danve will be the chief guest. The public representatives including the MP, MLCs and MLAs from the district will also attend the event. The managing director of CIDCO (Mumbai) Sanjay Mukherjee will also grace the cultural event.