Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) The winners of the first Shahkaar Arshad Durrani Theatre Awards will be honored at a special zoom prize distribution ceremony on Saturday 30 January, arranged by Ajoka Theatre Pakistan. The chairperson of the Awards Selection Committee, Justice (retd) Nasira Javed Iqbal will be the chief guest of the ceremony which will be attended by other selection committee members, Shahid Nadeem, Zara Salman, Saira Dar and Nirvaan Nadeem. Arshad Durrani’s daughter, Sumaya Durrani, artist, academic, founder and sponsor of the Shahkaar Awards, will be present at the ceremony.
The winner of Shahkaar Arshad Durrani Award for Excellence in Theatre, Sibte Hassan, actor and activist, will attend the ceremony at the Ajoka Office while Nadia Jamil, winner of Shahkaar Arshad Durrani Award Performance Against All Odds, will join from the UK on zoom. The Awards consist of cash prizes and shields created by Sumaya Durrani. The shields draw on the prototype of the Shahkaar Literary Journal, founded, edited and published 1934-1951, by Arshad Durrani’s father, Allama Tajwar Najibabadi poet, lexicographer and scholar. It is a tribute to Allama Tajwar Najibabadi on his Seventieth Death Anniversary, January 30th, 2021.
The Shahkaar Awards have been founded and sponsored by Sumaya Durrani as part of her Doctoral Research at the University of New South Wales Sydney and facilitated by Ajoka Theatre Pakistan. The Shahkaar Theatre Awards draw on the life and work of the veteran radio, stage and TV actor Arshad Durrani, 1935- 2018. Arshad Durrani was associated with Ajoka Theatre Pakistan and played major roles in acclaimed plays including “Charing Cross”, “Anhi Mai Da Sufna” and “Lo Phir Basant Ayee”.
The Awards Ceremony will be live streamed on Facebook and posted on Instagram and YouTube.
