A longtime performer from Vadodara is crossing familiar cultural lines this Dussehra: 39‑year‑old Abid Shaikh, who spent more than a decade playing Lakshmana in his city’s Ram Leela, will appear in Chhota Udepur’s inaugural large‑scale staging of the epic — taking on two very different parts. The production is part of a local push to restart a discontinued fair and use performance to strengthen social ties in the tribal district.
Shaikh, a resident of Akota, has played Lakshmana at Vadodara’s Polo Ground for 14 consecutive years. On Tuesday he will portray both the river ferryman **Kevat** and the valiant warrior **Meghnad** in the new Ram Leela production staged in Chhota Udepur — a rare move that signals the event’s scale and ambition.
For Shaikh, the stage work is more than acting. He says his attachment to these characters is rooted in their moral choices — Rama’s fidelity to his father’s command and Lakshmana’s loyalty — and that the plays offer a way to pass those values on to younger audiences. Family support has allowed him to continue performing without friction, he adds, and he views such cultural exchange as a bridge across religious lines. As he put it: “Humanity should come first for everyone.”
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Why the event matters now
The Ram Leela in Chhota Udepur arrives amid an administrative effort to revive the area’s Dussehra Mela, a festival that once ran alongside other local fairs but had lapsed for several years. District collector Gargi Jain has backed the initiative as part of a wider cultural revival intended to reconnect communities and introduce the Ramayana to a new generation.
Organisers say the staging aims to bring people together through performance rather than sermon. The production will conclude with the burning of a 35‑foot effigy of Ravana — a visual anchor that typically draws large crowds and signals the end of the festival.
- When: Vijayadashami (three‑hour evening production)
- Where: S N College grounds, Chhota Udepur
- Cast and crew: More than 70 artists, including performers with film and television experience
- Highlight: 35‑ft effigy of Ravana to be burned after the play
The staging is produced by the Shree Ram Seva Sangh, which has expanded its reach beyond Vadodara. Founded in 2007 under Akhilesh Mishra, the organisation maintains a roster of over 125 artists and traditionally mounts a weeklong Ram Leela after Diwali, featuring students and professionals from television.
Local officials say reviving the Dussehra Mela could have civic as well as cultural payoff: fairs like the region’s Ger Mela have historically served as social glue and a source of local commerce, and a renewed Dussehra could revive those benefits while giving young people a direct encounter with the epic’s stories.
For performers such as Shaikh, the work also carries a practical civic message. He argues that behavior — not belief — shapes public perception: doing good reflects positively on one’s community, while wrongdoing damages it, regardless of faith. That message underpins the organisers’ hope that the event will foster shared public life in a district marked by tribal traditions and recent administrative outreach.
Whether the experiment will relaunch a lasting annual fair remains to be seen, but the weekend’s Ram Leela has already drawn attention for the unusual sight of a long‑time Lakshmana returning to the stage in new guises — and for using theatre as an instrument of cultural repair in a region eager to bring back its festivals.
