‘Lagna Panchami’ brings Marathi theatre to Brisbane in its first international show

Brisbane’s Marathi community had plenty to laugh about on Sunday evening as Lagna Panchami, one of the latest Marathi theatrical productions featuring popular actors Swapnil Joshi and Amruta Khanvilkar, made its first international stop in Brisbane as part of its proposed world tour.

The show, organised in Brisbane by C&G Entertainment, was held on Sunday, 2 August at the Star Theatre, Wynnum State High School. The Brisbane performance was a sold-out, house-full event, giving the production an encouraging start to its international journey.
For the audience, however, the evening was about more than simply watching a popular Marathi play.

Lagna Panchami takes a familiar subject, marriage, and looks at the many personalities, expectations, misunderstandings and moments that emerge once two people begin sharing a life together. Presented with plenty of humour and everyday situations, the story found an easy connection with the Brisbane audience.

There was laughter throughout the performance, with many of the situations on stage striking a familiar chord with couples and families in the audience.
For Brisbane’s Marathi-speaking community, having a production of this scale and calibre on the local stage was particularly special.

“Living in Brisbane, we don’t often get an opportunity to watch a Marathi play of this scale with such a wonderful cast. For those two hours, it genuinely felt like we had brought a little bit of Maharashtra to Brisbane,” said Pradnya, who attended the performance.
For younger Marathi Australians, the experience offered a different connection to the language and culture.

“I grew up in Australia, so watching Marathi theatre here was a different experience for me. I understood the humour and the cultural references, but it also made me appreciate something that my parents grew up with,” said Chinmayi.

The evening became even more memorable after the curtain call, when the cast took time to interact with the Brisbane audience. Fans had the opportunity to meet Swapnil Joshi and Amruta Khanvilkar, take photographs with the actors and share their appreciation for the performance.

For many in the audience, the opportunity to see familiar faces from Marathi cinema and television perform live on stage, followed by a personal interaction with the artists, added another dimension to the evening.

The production brings together an experienced creative and performing team, with Swapnil Joshi and Amruta Khanvilkar leading the cast alongside Madhugandha Kulkarni who has also written the play herseld and of course the versatile Sunil Abhyankar. For Khanvilkar, Lagna Panchami also marks an important step into Marathi theatre.
The successful Brisbane show also highlights the growing appetite for Marathi cultural and entertainment events in Queensland.

Brisbane’s Indian community has grown significantly over the years, and so has the demand for events that bring audiences closer to the languages, traditions and performing arts they grew up with. For the Marathi community in particular, live theatre provides something that digital entertainment cannot quite replicate: sitting together in a theatre, sharing the same jokes, recognising the same cultural references and experiencing the performance collectively.

For C&G Entertainment, bringing Lagna Panchami to Brisbane represented another significant milestone in what has already been a busy and rewarding year of bringing quality Marathi and Indian entertainment to Queensland.

Throughout 2026, C&G Entertainment has worked to steadily broaden the range and scale of cultural experiences available to Brisbane audiences. Its calendar has included acclaimed Marathi theatre productions such as Kutumb Kirrtan, the devotional musical experience Abhangwari featuring internationally acclaimed vocalist Mahesh Kale, Marathi cinema screenings, and now Lagna Panchami — with each event offering audiences a different connection to Maharashtra’s rich artistic and cultural traditions.

Community coverage of Abhangwari also recognised C&G Entertainment’s growing contribution to Brisbane’s cultural landscape through its program of theatre, comedy and musical performances.

The organisation’s focus has been not simply on staging events, but on helping create a sustainable platform in Brisbane for high-quality Marathi theatre, music, cinema and performing arts, while encouraging leading artists and production houses from India to increasingly view Brisbane as an important destination alongside Australia’s larger traditional touring markets.

The sold-out response to Lagna Panchami was therefore particularly encouraging. Having Brisbane chosen as the production’s first international performance outside India, and then welcoming the team with a full house, demonstrated both the enthusiasm of the local Marathi community and Brisbane’s growing potential as a destination for major Marathi productions.

C&G Entertainment is already looking to continue that momentum. Its next presentation, Sambhavami Yuge Yuge, is scheduled for 4 September at the Queensland Multicultural Centre — a Bharatanatyam-based Dance Drama exploring the timeless philosophy and teachings of Lord Krishna through dance, music and theatrical storytelling.

For C&G Entertainment, the broader ambition remains simple: to keep bringing diverse, professionally presented and culturally meaningful entertainment to Brisbane, while giving the local community more opportunities to experience the artists, stories and traditions of India live on a Brisbane stage.

The success of the show, particularly its sold-out Brisbane performance and enthusiastic audience response, could also signal a growing opportunity for more major Marathi productions and artists to include Brisbane in their international touring plans.
As the audience left the Star Theatre, the evening had clearly delivered what good theatre is meant to do: make people laugh, connect with a story and, for a few hours, feel a little closer to home.

For Brisbane’s Marathi community, Lagna Panchami was not just a night at the theatre. It was a little piece of Maharashtra arriving on an international stage, and Brisbane was proud to give it a full house.

Basava Samiti Asia Pacific Marks another Big Month of Culture and Innovation

The volunteer-led charity celebrated India’s 80th Independence Day across three cities, participated in Stripe Tour Event in Sydney, while preparing to refresh its website next month. Celebrating Culture Across Three Cities on India’s 80th Independence Day
The charity’s Independence Day events drew families, children, young people and community leaders in all three major cities, celebrating Australia’s multicultural character alongside the richness of Indian heritage through music, performance and community participation. It is building bridges between generations and communities, while promoting values of equality, dignity, service and responsible citizenship associated with the teachings of Guru Basava.

In Brisbane, Mrs. Girija Karekal, Executive Director along with other community members and government officials attended the magnificent celebration at The Star Hotel which was hosted by the Consul General of India in Brisbane on the 16th Aug 2026. The BSAPAC Brisbane team also participated in the Independence Day Parade hosted by the GOPIO at the Roma Street Parklands on the 15th Aug 2026.

Maria Luqman, Head of Marketing, introduced the services of Basava Samiti Asia Pacific (BASPAC), with former Australian cricket captain Shane Watson and other cricket personalities during the 80th Indian Independence Day celebrations in Sydney.
BSAPAC Management Committee under the leadership of Mr. Vinay Moogi Community leaders hosted by the Indian Society of Western Australia, at the ICC on Saturday August 15th at 9am for the flag raising marking the completion of India’s 79th Independence Day.
In the Tech Sector – Stripe Tour 2026

In Sydney, BSAPAC also discussed the challenges of Not for Profit charities and required advancements in relation to the payment platforms at the Darling Harbour, Sydney during the Stripe Tour 2026. The event brought together leaders in technology, artificial intelligence, digital transformation, fintech and business, giving BSAPAC officers a chance to connect beyond the community sector.

The Stripe Tour event carried particular significance given its own foundations are heavily digital: BSAPAC officers already voluntarily contribute professional skills across technology, education, communications, finance, marketing, design and community development. BSAPAC is a demonstration of how community impact is strengthened when professional skill and experience are connected to social cause, Guru Basava philosophy being reflected in its Learn2Grow initiatives, which delivers ethical training program in technology and workplace skills.

A Volunteer Model Built on Shared Values

Underpinning both the celebrations and the sponsorship is a growing base of volunteers contributing their time and professional expertise to a shared cause. BSAPAC describes its model as volunteer-driven, technology-enabled and task-based, letting people contribute according to their own skills and availability, summed up in its motto, “Engage. Educate. Empower. Enlighten.” It traces its philosophy to two principles associated with Guru Basava: Kāyaka, the dignity and value of meaningful work, and Dāsōha, the sharing of one’s abilities and resources for the benefit of others.

Next Month: A New Website
BSAPAC’s next milestone arrives next month with the launch of a refreshed website intended to make its work more visible to the public. The site will feature volunteer success stories, community initiatives, educational programs, cultural activities, professional development opportunities and charitable projects, it aims to offer greater transparency about how a technology-enabled volunteer charity can operate across geographical boundaries while staying connected to local communities.

BSAPAC is committed to creating opportunities for people to participate, learn, contribute and make a difference, with more programs, community engagement and collaboration planned in the months ahead.
Visit Basava Samiti Asia Pacific

What Is In a Name?
“Indo Fijians” and the Making of Race

The Human Thread with Sabrina Iqbal Khan
Exploring humanity, storytelling, and the social issues impacting our communities.

What is in a name? Ask ten “Indo Fijians” how they identify and the answers rarely match: Fijian, Indian, Pacific Islander, South Asian, or simply Indian in Fiji. None of these answers are wrong. What is worth asking is where the label came from.
“Indo Fijian” grew out of the machinery of British indenture. From 1879, over sixty thousand labourers were shipped from India to work Fiji’s sugar plantations under the girmit system, a word drawn from the English “agreement” that workers could barely read before they signed it. Many were stripped of freedom of movement and legal standing for years, housed in cramped lines and paid little. Colonial administrators then sorted iTaukei, Indian and European populations into separate legal categories, deciding who could own land, vote or belong.

That inherited system still echoes today, not only in memory but also in politics: the ethnic categories drawn up under empire have resurfaced again and again in Fiji’s constitutional debates and coups. New Zealand’s recent move to classify Fijian Indians as “Asian” rather than “Pacific” has denied many access to support their neighbours receive, a reminder that naming is never mere semantics. It is about dignity and it is about rights.

This got me thinking about race itself, a word we use daily yet one with no settled scientific definition. In 1950, UNESCO called race “less a biological fact than a social myth.” Geneticist Richard Lewontin later found that most human genetic variation exists within so called racial groups, not between them, a finding echoed decades later when the Human Genome Project confirmed that any two people share the overwhelming majority of their genetic code.

The American Association of Biological Anthropologists confirmed in 2019 that humans are not divided into fixed biological clusters. Scholars of International Relations now trace much of “race” to the colonial expansion of the seventeenth century, a tool built to govern and extract, not a fact of biology. Empires needed categories to decide who could be taxed, indentured, or ruled, and race supplied a convenient, false certainty.

None of this erases real history or lived difference. Communities carry genuine memory, language, and inherited hardship, and that deserves respect, not dismissal. But the boxes themselves were built by policy, not nature. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights reminds us that all people are born free and equal in dignity and rights, and later international law extended that promise into a direct prohibition on racial discrimination. If a category was invented to govern people, it can be reimagined to include them instead, on their own terms.

“Indo Fijians” did not choose their name, but they have chosen, again and again, to build community through language, faith, memory and resilience. Perhaps the lesson for the rest of us is this: differences are real, but the boxes we file them into were built, not born. When we see people as they define themselves, rather than as history classified them, we lay the very bridges this column is named for. The strongest communities are not those without problems, but those willing to face them together.

ABOUT THE WRITER:

Sabrina Iqbal Khan is an international award-winning filmmaker, producer and actress, a barrister to the High Court of Fiji and admitted to the Supreme Court of Victoria, 2007. She is a recipient of a Fijian Medal of Honour for community service, domestic violence awareness and poverty alleviation, and the winner of the 2025 New South Wales Human Rights Medal. Her first film, Seema, received recognition in the United States of America, where a national day was declared in honour of the film.

Sabrina has also been published in the field of cross-cultural dialogue, including developing a dialogue theory recognised by the American Center for Dialogue. With heritage connected to North West India, Bengal, Afghanistan and the wider Girmit diaspora experience, she writes on humanity, storytelling, rights, and the social justice issues impacting our communities.

The Power of Community: Supporting One Another Through Life’s Challenges

By Xavier Hernandez

I would like to begin this month’s column by saying a heartfelt thank you to all our Australian Indian Times readers who have taken the time to speak with me and share their thoughts about my column. It is wonderful to hear that the topics I cover are giving people something to think about, learn from and discuss. Your feedback is invaluable. It also reminds me that while social media is an important way of staying connected, print media is still valued, respected and an important part of our community.

A special thank you to JD and Sandy Deo, along with the entire Australian Indian Times team, for their continued commitment to keeping our communities informed, connected and part of the conversation.

As I write this month’s column, events around the world remind us how quickly life can change and how important it is to stand together during times of tragedy.

I ask our readers to keep in their thoughts and prayers everyone affected by the devastating disaster along the Nepal–Tibet border. On 26 August, a catastrophic glacial collapse in the Himalayas triggered a massive surge of water, mud and debris, causing widespread destruction and leaving many people missing. Among those missing are people from the Indian diaspora, Australians and many more.

We have also seen significant volcanic activity in Guatemala, reminding us once again of the power of nature and the importance of looking after one another. For me, this is a reminder that our communities extend far beyond where we live. A simple prayer, a message of support or an act of kindness can mean so much to someone experiencing unimaginable loss.

This month, I continue that conversation by looking at the real-life impact community organisations can have, the importance of supporting carers and how funding can better reach those providing support on the ground.
Now, this is Part 5 of my interview with Cr St Ledger, Councillor for Division 4, City of Logan.

Xavier Hernandez:
When you’ve seen firsthand how early intervention and community support can help people?

Cr St Ledger:
One that really stands out, and I talk about it a bit, is our ACFC golf days. They’re charity days and they always sell out. So you’ve got roughly 72 people there. The whole idea of the day is to have an enjoyable day, give people time to have a chat with their mates, but also for people to look around and realise that there’s always help and support there.
After one of those events, we had a fella’s wife send us a message and just say, “Thank you.

Thank you for the day. Thank you for what you did for my husband. It’s the first time he’s ever spoken to me about how he feels. I feel like I’m going to get my husband, and my kids are going to get their father back.”
So, things like that are really powerful.

Xavier Hernandez:
How important is it to recognise the mental health of carers?

Cr St Ledger:
Yeah, no, most definitely. Over the last 18 months to two years, I’ve been lucky to come across another charity group, Arafmi, that do amazing work in the space that you talk about.

I think that’s a really vital thing in the mental health space: don’t try to do everything yourself, and you don’t need to. Be open to talking, and you’re not competing with other organisations. You’re all in this for the same reason.

We only do what we do at ACFC to genuinely help other people. It’s not about money, it’s not about recognition; it’s about being able to help other people and to bring those suicide rates down.

Arafmi’s wheelhouse for a lot of what they do is supporting carers. And not carers as far as paid carers, but carers like young people caring for parents who might be suffering from mental illness, parents caring for young people, and people caring for their partners.
They do respite, training and all kinds of things. So, with that sort of support, linking people in with an organisation like Arafmi is amazing.

Xavier Hernandez:
If you could change one thing, what would it be?

Cr St Ledger:
Well, there’s… I was actually talking to someone about this the other day.
I would love to change the way that funding is received and distributed, and have guidelines around really big organisations.

By empowering and getting more people on the ground rather than less bums on seats in offices, we need more boots on the ground doing real support.
Because you can’t beat life experience. People with life experience, with some training and some education behind them, can make a real difference in this space.
So, I’d love to see something done around that.

End of Interview
On a different note. A special acknowledgement also goes to all the community groups that hosted an Indian Independence Day celebration. I was very fortunate to continue volunteering at the iconic GOPIO Brisbane India Independence Day celebration by volunteering at the GOPIO stall.

What truly made my day was seeing the number of people from all walks of life who attended, laughing, dancing and simply enjoying the warm Brisbane weather. I loved handing out beanies donated by Mission Possible, decorating the stall, selling raffle tickets and much more. But it was the hugs and thank-yous that I appreciated the most.

This year, I was delighted to walk with the banner and team and, of course, have a dance on stage with former president Usha Chandra OAM and the team.

In addition, thank you to Mukesh Dubey for hosting the fabulous Dandiya Night at Greater Springfield. This was such a bright, colourful and incredible night. It was great to volunteer for a team who loves our vibrant Australian Indian community as much as I do.
Also, thank you to Neetu from the Hariyanvi Welfare Association, as well as Desi Mums Brisbane and the Gold Coast, who recently welcomed so many people from different community groups to their India Day celebrations.

So, I finish this article by wishing all the fathers out there, father figures, and those who are doing the job of both mum and dad, a very happy Father’s Day, and of course, a happy Grandparents’ Day.

Your hard work doesn’t go unnoticed, especially that of our mentors. Thank you, JD, and your family for being such great mentors to me and other young people in the community.