-- Reproduced from SouthNexus.com (March 08, 2001). Original article is available here

The world of magic is an enigma to the common man. But in reality the world of magic is nothing but world of illusion. Popularly known as the "King of Illusion" Prahalad Acharya is one of those magicians who has carved himself a niche in the world of magic. A graduate in law from Vaikunta Baliga Law College of Manipal this man has come a long way from the day of his college where he took magic as a challenge and tried to solve the mystery surrounding it.

Listen to him in our interview of the week….

Background

Magic had fascinated him from childhood. He was drawn to this world of magic, which made him take it up as a career. He is a self-taught magician. Has had no formal training and his knowledge comes from books and help given by the great magician Lal, P C Sorcar and Uday.

In his career span of 16 years he has presented over 2,200 shows and 989 escapes. The dare devil performance of "Houdini escape" has won his acclaim from magicians all around the world.

As he says world of magic revolves around a small framework. Magicians can either make things vanish or appear or shift one thing from one place to another or use some anti gravity theories of escape. Magic shows every where is nearly same and a person cannot watch time and again the same performance since it is he reputation of the same act. The real magician is the one who masters in these forms of art and holds the interest of audience for a longer time.

What is magic according to you?
Magic in simple terms is science of illusion. Its aim is to entertain people.

Can you trace the evolution of magic for us?
Through the years magic shows have evolved in their ways of presentation. The shows nowadays focus much more on the presentation than the act itself. The tricks are the same but the ways of presentation have changed for the better. The costumes, the stage set up and the dramatic ways of presentation of the trick adds to its beauty.

The only difference between the olden days tricks and modern ones are then magicians concentrated on performing the trick and the presentation part was not given too much importance. These days lot of importance is given to the presentation. At present I perform tricks with a story line based on folk tales from our legends, which helps me to hold the attention of the viewer for a longer stretch.

You have included novel ideas like shadow play and talking doll acts in your stage shows? The reason behind it?
Shadow play is an art, which is on verge of distinction these days due to the media exploitation. By including it in my performance I thought that I could at least spread this art form and help the audience relive the joyous moments of watching shadow play. It was for this purpose I took up training under Uday.

Which tricks do you see as unique in this world of magic?
I consider the tricks of the Indian gypsy as the best ever examples of magic. They show their tricks in open spaces surrounded by people on all sides. It needs lots of courage to give such performances.

How have the foreigners accepted Indian magic?
Even today Indians hold great respect in the world of magic. Many of the tricks like the rope trick, Indian basket act, Temple of Banaras and few others are refered as Indian tricks and retain their original Indian names.

The Indian acts are far more complicated than the foreign tricks, which are stage, oriented and can only be watched in a particular angle. They cannot be performed in open grounds were as Indian tricks like the rope trick, Indian basket are not unidirectional and can be performed in various angels. It is hard for a viewer to get to know the secret of this magic. The Indian climbing rope still remains a mystery to many a people, which shows the magnificence of Indian Magicians.

What are your plans for the future?
Our troop "Yakshalokha" is celebrating its 1000th performance on April 8. Later we have plans of performing in Udupi Temple in a month or two from now. In the years to come I hope to improve on the tricks and make it more interesting so that many people come forward to learn it.

-- Reproduced from SouthNexus.com (March 2001). Original article is available here.

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