Mangaluru : The ‘guthu mane’ (traditional manor house) at the Dr. Shivaram Karanth Pilikula Nisargadhama will have a Yakshagana ‘chowki’ (green room) and a 3-D room for providing a live experience of the performing arts of the coastal belt .

They have been planned in the first phase of the Rs. 5-crore Janapada Loka Project.

The implementation committee of the project, headed by scholar B.A. Vivek Rai, met at the nisargadhama on Saturday to discuss a detailed project report.

J.R. Lobo, MLA, Mangaluru City South, and former executive director of the nisargadhama, were present.

Mr. Lobo said that it would be a three-year project of which the Department of Kannada and Culture had released Rs. 1.49 crore. Other works would be taken up in phases.

S.A. Prabhakara Sharma, executive director of the nisargadhama, said that the 3-D room would give a real experience while screening videos of performing arts of the coastal belt like Yakshagana, folk dances and videos related to Bhootaradhane.

The Yakshagana ‘chowki’. would have all costumes of Yakshagana and percussion instruments such as chende and maddale. It was to enable artistes to present Yakshagana shows whenever required. With this there was no need to hire the costumes from outside. Artistes could directly come to the nisargadhama and perform. In addition, the manor house would have an ‘ajji corner’ and ‘kalembi’ (treasury). Artefacts already collected would be placed in appropriated places like how they were in a traditional manor house.

Mr. Sharma said that a model of ‘saarotu’ (bullock cart) would be placed on the premises of the house and there would be a ‘maana sthamba’.