Know Your Babu: Sports ministry’s new joint secretary V Venu is also a stage actor

VENTURING into acting is not an easy "file" to handle, at least for veteran administrators. But newly-appointed joint secretary in the department of sports and 1990 batch Kerala cadre IAS V Venu is also an actor. It was January 2010 the then Kerala tourism secretary Venu donned the role of a shrewd contractor who tries to manipulate bureaucracy and politics! He acted in a...

Dramatic Move: Actor IAS V Venu as a manipulative contractor

IMAGINE an IAS officer taking a dramatic move of donning the role of a shrewd contractor who tries to manipulate bureaucracy and politics! During the recent Bharat Rang Mahotsav, a theatre festival organized by the National School of Drama in New Delhi, Kerala’s tourism secretary Dr V Venu, a 1990 batch IAS, donned that role of a manipulative contractor as he acted in a Malayalam play ‘Palangal’, (bridges), an adaptation of the work of famous poet K Ayyappa Panicker.

Directed by D Reghoothaman and staged by Abhinaya theatres, Thiruvananthapuram, ‘Palangal’ depicts the events that surround the proposed construction of a bridge where Dr Venu came to the centrestage, literally.

The bureaucrat, who studied medicine surgery before getting into IAS, told media that he was an actor during the college days, but discontinued his passion thanks to the mounting work pressure. But he chose to revive his talent on stage once he joined the culture department in the state about three years ago. He was also in the Central deputation and worked as deputy secretary in the ministry of tourism and culture in 2003-04. Later, he was promoted to a director level post, deputy director general, in the ministry of tourism in New Delhi.

Thanks to his personal interest in acting, Dr Venu has initiated a programme under which a number of Kerala’s award-winning theatre directors performed plays in UK, South Korea, Japan and Russia recently.

So will the IAS-cum-actor stage a play for the global audience too, for promoting tourism in the God’s own country?

If you know a bureaucrat who has a private passion whether in the realm of music, theatre, art, or anything else, kindly write to babu.blogger1@gmail.com

11 senior officials transferred in Bihar

In a major reshuffle in bureaucracy in Bihar, chief minister Nitish Kumar has transferred 11 senior bureaucrats, including principal secretary Girish Shankar. State’s urban development and housing principal secretary Afzal Amanullah will now hold the important post of a cabinet coordination. Amitabh Verma, principal secretary to the animal husbandry department, will be given additional charge of cooperative department, whereas R K Khandelwal will be secretary to the revenue department.