Amateur Troupes of North Karnataka were pretty much popular among the people of the state. The troupes travelled to various parts of the state and spread the awareness among the people. The seeds of the amateur stage of North Karnataka seem to have been sown by Prachya Kreeda Samvardhana Mandali of Madihal, a suburb of Dharwar. It had become a custom with the Mandali by the year 1899 to stage a mythological drama on the occasion of its Annual Ganapati festival. Soon, the Mandali relieved the performance of its religious colour and gave it a secular, cultural and social status. The performance came to be repeated more often. Experience gained during these performances gave the promoters of the Mandali the necessary self-confidence, and they established, on the initiative of Mudavidu Krishna Rao who was inspired by the Badami Amateurs, a "regular" troupe in 1904 and called it the Bharata Kalottejaka Sangeeta Samaja. The new troupe staged in two instalments, Churamuri`s Shakuntala, in 1905. Later, it staged Saubhadra and Ramarajya. Viyoga, both translated from Marath by Mudavidu, now the guiding star of the troupe. Mricchakatika followed these and brought untainted encouragement and patronage from the elite of Dharwar. Deshpande Tirumala Rao who came from a family of reputed musicians of Dharwar played leading roles in all the plays and remained the pivot of the troupe. Vaidya Subbanna Avadhani Timmannacharya, Sambal Veerappa and Madanbhavi Venkatarama came to be known as actors of out standing abilities.
The Association flourished just for about a decade and staged quite a few full-length stage-plays, mostly drawn from the Marathi literature. The presentation is said to have contained quite a few flaws of the professional stage with regard to the endless number of songs and "crude" acting. But it must be said to the credit of this troupe that it was responsible in inspiring many more amateur troupes to come into being in North Karnataka. Scores of them sprang up and tried to follow the footsteps of the Bharata Kalottejaka Sangeeta Samaja, quite a few of them died a premature death, but a handful of them could be reckoned to have done yeoman service to the theatre. Only a few of them lived long and well. Among them, mention may be made of the Youngmen`s Football Club Amateurs of Gadag, the Vasudeva Amateurs of Bagalkot, the Bharat Sevak Samaj of Bijapur and the Karnataka College Amateurs, Kannada Natya Vilasigala Sangha and the Kalopasak Mandal of Dharwar. It is significant that the city of Gadag which sponsored the very first professional troupe of North Karnataka - the acclaimed Krtapura Nataka Mandali of Santakavi - gave also the first successful amateur troupe, the Youngmen`s Football Club Amateurs. This troupe was the outcome of the influence of the Bharat Kalottejaka Sangeeta Samaja of Madihal. The troupe worked under the inspiration and guidance of Sri Narayana Rao Huilgol, who, with an unerring understanding of the secret of the success of the Marathi stage, wrote plays on realistic social themes. The Gadag Amateurs invariably staged a new play a year. Between the years 1916 and 1925, the troupe staged several plays of Narayana Rao including Premarjun, Kanakavilasa, Vajramukuta, Kumara Rama, Vidyaranya, Bharata Sandhana, Stree Dharma Rahasya and Patitoddhara.
His later plays including Stree Dharma Rahasya became very popular and attracted the attention as a progressive play in the cause of emancipation of woman to an equal status with man. The Gadag amateurs earned a name for their impressive performances. They visited important towns in North Karnataka and donated their profits to social and educational causes. The Vidyadana Samiti High School of Gadag is a living monument to the high ideals which inspired the troupe.
The Bagalkot amateurs came into being in January 1927 under the title Vasudeva Vinodini Sabha, named after Sri Kerur Vasudevacharya, a noted playwright, novelist, short-story writer and journalist of North Karnataka. Kerur, like his predecessors, Gunderao Churamuri and Gadigayya Honnapurmath, had translated into Kannada language, well-known plays from English. The Karnataka College of Dharwar built up a band of talented artists consisting of students and members of the staff. It staged from the Twenties, many impressive plays starting with Tdlikote of Masti, Suratanagarada Sresti of Kerur and Stree Dharma Rahasya of Huilgol.
The Kannada Natya Vilasigala Sangha and the Kalopasak Mandal, both from Dharwar are among the well established amateur troupes of North Karnataka. The former was started about twenty years ago by Sriranga the noted playwright who wrote for the troupe. It specialised in prose-plays and visited Pune, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad in addition to paying more frequent visits to important centres in North Karnataka.
With new colleges coming up at Belgaum, Bijapur, Bagalkot and Hubli, more amateur groups have sprung up. Apart from these, every important city in North Karnataka has its own amateur troupes which strive to continue the tradition of our theatre; and new troupes are always springing up inspired to work by a distinguished artist or playwright. The Kannada Kalbddharaka Sangha led by Srinivas Havnur is an example to cite, for it took up plays of D. G. Kulkarni, a young and promising playwright of Dharwar and put up impressive shows. The Stage Unit of All India Radio provided yet another example in Dharwar of the rich talent available for the Kannada amateur stage. The real hope for or the amateur stage of North Karnataka seems to be cantered more in these amateur associations than in the college troupes.
