It may be recalled that in 2010, John D’Silva had recordedan entry in the Limca Book of Records for scripting, directing and producing 25Konkani shows, with their titles having double alphabet in it. It all beganwhen John D’Silva completed ten titles of his tiatrs with the double alphabet;he then gave a serious thought to perhaps making 25 tiatrs with the signaturedouble letters. No doubt it took him nearly 12 years to achieve this uniquemilestone. But the wait was worth a while, admits John.
It all began when John D’ Silva first scripted the tiatr‘Vell’ which contained a double alphabet ‘ll’ in the year 1996. Thereafter JohnD’Silva followed with ‘Dennem, Kolle, Ekvot, Vatt, Umannem, Sokallim, Menn,Avessor, Bott, Somzonni, Magnnem, Bovall, Kirnnam, Porddo, Suknnim, Ugddas,Konn?, Vann, Vaitt, Jinn, Dhull, Xidkavnni, Voddem, and Nattok’ to complete thequarter century mark. His 25th production ‘Nattok’ was followed by ‘Devull, Kall, Kuttumb,Pisollem, Rochnnar, Ollokh, Sankhlleo,and the current one being Ranvotti’.
Elaborating further John says, “After Nattok I have addedeight more tiatrs with the title that have a double alphabet in it”. Furtherreplying to The Goan whether he is aiming to target the half century mark, Johnreplied , “Well, it all depends if I am still around scripting tiatrs. It’shard to say. Getting the record accepted and included in the Limca Book ofrecords by the authorities is a very cumbersome process. There is so much ofauthentication, verification and cross verification. It took me more than ayear to get an entry into the Limca Book of records.”
John D’Silva’s father was a tiatr artiste too; however, hestuck to the amateur group of tiatrists, never joining the professional segmentand later took up a job in the Gulf. He was a gifted composer and singer. Well known for his scripting skills whichcontain flowery and meaningful dialogues, John makes good use of life’sphilosophy to get his point across through the medium of tiatr. His numerousfans adore him for his comedy acts too. Having touched the magical figure of 33tiatrs with the title containing a double alphabet, he is now looking forwardto add 17 more titles. It should not be a farfetched dream for him consideringhe is scripting two plays in a calendar year.
