Actor-director Naseeruddin Shah said, theatre was the only 'religion' he believed in as he was not the believer of any other religion. He was inaugurating the second International Theatre Festival of Kerala (ITFK 2009), organised by the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy at Thrissur Regional Theatre on Sunday. "The stage, for me, is a sacred space. I worship theatre. The only way to worship theatre is to shed one's own sweat on stage." he added. He said it was encouraging and rejuvenating to see many takers for theatre. "It gives me great pleasure to come across a massive audience in Kerala for a drama. In New Delhi there used to be huge crowds at film festivals because uncensored titles were shown there. But not so for theatre." He was pointing to the huge crowd that thronged the auditorium.
Inaugurating an open air theatre in memory of actor Murali on the premises of the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy, Cultural Affairs Minister M. A. Baby said, Thrissur would be the centre of Theatre Festival like Thiruvanathapuram be the place for Film Festival. He added that the third edition of the International Theatre of Kerala would focus on Latin American theatre. Dr. Aliyar carried out the commemorative talk on Murali. District collector Dr. V.K. Baby, Mayor R. Bindu, MLAs Therambil Ramakrishnan, Babu M. Palissery, Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy chairman in-charge K. M. Raghavan Nambiar, Secretary Prabhakaran Pazhassy, Kerala Kalamandalam Vice Chancellor K. G. Paulose, Registrar N. R. Gramaprakas, Sahitya Academy secretary Purushan Kadalundi, Culture Secretary V. Venu, School of Drama and Fine Arts head Kumara Varma, Festival director Abhilash Pillai and director of African Studies with Delhi University Suresh Kumar were present.
