The city will soon have a drama school which will come up in Minerva theatre.

A host of stage veterans in the city will join the Minerva School of Drama, which the government claims will be modelled on Delhi’s National School of Drama.

“The school will have its own repertoire and conduct research and training in an organised way,” said Anup Motilal, the state director for culture.

Circulars signed by Motilal state the school will be run by a 40-member general panel, to be headed by stage veteran Kumar Roy. Among others on the committee are Arun Mukhopadhyay, Manoj Mitra, Ashok Mukhopadhyay, Sova Sen, Soumitra Chattopadhyay, Rudraprasad Sengupta and Chandan Sen.

Roy will also head an executive panel comprising 14 theatre personalities and a few government officials.

The memorandum of association will be registered next week. The government is yet to decide who will be the chief executive officer. “As in Nandan, a senior government official will run the drama school,” said Motilal.

Several panels assigned with specific roles will function under the executive committee. For instance, a panel comprising Manoj Mitra and Usha Ganguly will decide on theatre productions.

Decisions on seminars will be taken by Ashok Mukhopadhyay and Salil Chattopadhyay, and on workshop and training by Arun Mukhopadhyay, Rudraprasad Sengupta, Meghnad Bhattacharya and Dwijen Bandhopadhyay.

Not all, however, are happy with the way the government has been going about the project. Sengupta said: “I know very little about the Minerva School of Drama. Even the chairman seems to be in the dark... Theatre people are so hard up that even the scent of something good makes us salivate.”

Dramatist Chandan Sen said: “Most of the people chosen for the drama school are also running the Natya Akademi. Our roles need to be clarified.”