Sahana Pinjar gets 2025 Ranga Rathna award

The 2025 Ranga Rathna award was presented to theatre practitioner and researcher Dr. Sahana Pinjar here on December 12. The honour is instituted by the Ranga Rathna organisation, established in 2020 to recognise distinguished contributors to Kannada theatre.

Ranga Rathna was founded by Tarniv, a yoga and meditation practitioner from Canada, and engineer N.S. Anand with the aim of preserving the legacy of noted theatre personality Dr. N. Ratna. The organisation annually honours directors, playwrights, actors, musicians, stage designers, and other eminent persons who have made significant contributions to theatre.

Earlier recipients include H.S. Umesh (2020), senior theatre artiste Hariprasad (2021), Manjunath Upadhyaya (2022), director-organiser M.M. Suguna (2023) and actor-writer-director N. Dhananjaya (2024).

Dr. Pinjar, a young theatre practitioner, is also a teacher. She is a syndicate member of the Karnataka Folklore University and has served as a member of the Rangasamaja. Her artistic journey began with street theatre and developed further through training at Ninasam and the National School of Drama. She obtained her PhD from Bengaluru University and has conducted theatre workshops for children and persons with mental illness. She has also participated in international theatre training programmes, a press release said.

The award was presented by U.A. Sharath Ananthamurthy, Vice-Chancellor of Kuvempu University, Shivamogga. Senior theatre practitioner Rameshwari Varma, N.S. Anand, and others were present.