Blend In’s success at Midas trophy of Foreign Languages was an unbelievable feat. There are more than one reason for this. But first, let’s take a recap of what exactly happened in November 2018.
Every year in Pune, Tejal Creations used to organize Midas Trophy, a foreign language drama competition. In the year 2018 Blend In decided to participate with a Spanish drama ‘Nosotros los Indios’, a romcom of a Spanish native which also leads him to enlightenment of Indian values.
The play won three awards, most by any play that evening.
It was written by Prof. Rahul Sahasrabuddhe. The sets were designed by various students of Blend In. The background score was given by Vikrant Chanale & Somnath Jawale. The main cast was Rahul Sahasrabuddhe, Viraj Deshpande, Rutuja Chitnis, Avanti Kale, Akshay Adep, Gautami Khole & guest appearances of Sharwari Kale & Prasad Deodhar. The lighting arrangements were also done by Prasad Deodhar. All were students of Blend In.
Now, what makes it an unbelievable feat? Students like Akshay Adep who had not even seen a play , presented a stupendous act. Except for 2 or 3, no one had any experience in the theater or acting or even drama competition field. Except for 3 or 4 students no one could speak Spanish fluently which finally was a 40 minute Spanish drama with hardly any use of any other foreign language. We had to work on diction, pronunciation, quirks & nuances of Spaniards & blend all this into an interesting drama. Another very important factor was the rest of the plays. We were competing against plays that had won state awards for best play.
So what was the secret ingredient that won us this trophy?
First practice. We knew we had weak links within us. The only way to win over them was to practice. Akshay, being the most unknown to this thing, practiced one of the scenes 48 times before the final day.
Second consistency. We practiced for 2 months everyday for about 3 hrs without caring about any other commitment.
Third faith & understanding. We knew we needed improvement but we also had faith in our colleagues who had experience in this field. We believed each other, we improved each other & the result was sweet.
And lastly the enthusiasm. The enthusiasm & creativity won the hearts of the judges. In fact, one of the judges, Belén Camaño, confessed to us later that she cried during an emotional moment in the play. This was a native complementing our performance.
Honestly, we never expected the success. We worked with our hearts & had a lot of fun. The success in the play may or may not be important in our fields but it will forever remain in our heart as an unattainable fantastical feat.
Blend In will be forever indebted to
Gautami Khole
Swaraj Bhosale
Abhijit Wani
Somnath Jawale
Nikhil Nagare
Tejas Mulik &
Divya More
Without whom we would not have won.
Watch the press coverage for our commercial show here