Journalism of Courage
A state-of-the-art 950-seat auditorium that doubles up as a movie hall and is comparable to big ticket ones like the Balgandharva Rangmandir and Tilak Smarak Mandir in the city is being given finishing touches at the century old St Helenas school. The auditorium dedicated to school founder Susie Sorabji will be inaugurated mid-November and VVIPs invited to the function include Priyanka Gandhi and Abdul Kalam.
The Anglo-Indian school affiliated to the council of Indian School Certificate Examination (ICSE) has also set up a large swimming pool with a lawn tennis court in the three-storey building.
This is a great occasion for us as a lot of detailed planning has gone into setting up the building to encourage and develop an understanding of fine arts among our students, said Olive Das,Secretary of the St Helenas School Society. The pressing need for space for extracurricular and sports activities was felt during the schools centenary celebrations four years ago and the project was undertaken at a whopping Rs 10 crore to erect a structure on campus to promote sports,literary and cultural activities.
Salim Shaikh,the project coordinator assisted by Umesh Mulay from Ajanta interiors and Yashwant Mohod of Yash Audio Visuals have made the maximum use of the 11,000 sq ft building.
The unique feature of the auditorium is the acoustically treated hall with a 34ft X 18ft motorized remote control screen on a 65ft X 36 ft stage and a sound system that has 250-watt RMS speakers used in cinema halls.
Specially designed VVIP boxes have been set up on either side of the auditorium and care has been taken to ensure the audience gets a perfect view of the stage,Das said.
A UPS system will ensure there is no power disruption even for a second,she added.
We hope to invite international artistes and aim at giving a boost to classical arts, Das said. The facilities are mainly for the 3,000-odd school students,be it for elocution contests or staging plays. The school authorities have also decided to let it out on rent,but only during weekends when there are no classes. A Save the Girl Child tableaux by girls of the school is on the agenda at the inaugural function.
