Saturday, 10 May 2025 marked the beginning of the 85th Bhagavata Mela Mahotsav by Bhagavata Mela Natya Nataka Sangam, Melattur. Temple, Melattur with an abishekam for Sri Lakshmi Narasimhar at the Sri Varadharaja Perumal temple in Melattur.  

The next day, the Mahotsav was formally inaugurated by Padma Subrahmanyam along with Aneish Rajan, Director, Department of Culture, India. The customary and most popular Prahalada Charitam was performed. S. Kumar as Hiranyakasipu, Anirudh Prasanna as Leelavathi shined along with Srikanth Natarajan and Arvind Ramadurarai.                                                  

Young Sudharshan befittingly doned the role of Prahlada while Venkatasubramanian alias Pisuvati Ganesh, portrayed Narasimha. Sudharshan also displayed his extraordinary skill as Markandeya against S. Kumar who adorned Yama in Markandeya Charithram.

The other days witnessed their flagship dramas including Harischandra with Srikanth Natarajan portraying Chandramathi; Vijay Madhavan  as Mathankakanyalu; Neelakandan as Viswamitrara, R. Varadharajan as Kasi Raja, Krishnamurthy as Vashista.

Usha Paraniyam staged after several years saw seasoned artist Arvind Ramadurai display his craftsmanship in the role of Usha while Sairam Santhanam took the role of Siva and Sundaresan Pandurangan, Krishna. 

The last day was dedicated to Tamil Opera Sri Valli Thirumanam, a popular choice of the local audience of Melattur village. The festival also saw eminent exponents in other art forms perform.

The orchestra was headed by Thiruvaiyaru Brothers - S.Narasimhan and S. Venkatesan, Nagai P. Sriram played the mridangam, T. Kishore, violin and B. Gokulakrishnan, flute. They were accompanied by vocal artists - L. Prabhakaran, N. Venkata Subramanian and V. Venjata Krishnan