Mangalore : The controversial play ‘Gandhi Banda’, based on book authored by H Nagaveni was staged at the AB Shetty Auditorium on April 25, Friday evening.

Rangamantapa of Bangalore has adopted the book to stage the play, under the direction of Champa Shetty.

The play ‘Gandhi Banda’ which has won much appreciation has been staged in Bangalore, Mumbai, New Delhi and Odisha.

Further, Rangamantapa will stage ‘Abhijnana Shakuntala’ at Govinda Dasa college, Suratkal on April 26, Saturday and at MGM College Udupi on April 27, Sunday.

The book ‘Gandhi Banda’ was termed as controversial, after it was prescribed as a text book for third semester BA courses in Mangalore University, who in turn asked the author to delete some contents of the book and reduce it to 190 pages from 400 page, after the Vishwakarma community and some other communities raised objection against the usage of some words in the book.