By Shyamhari Chakra
Invoking enough excitement among the Indian theatre fraternity and connoisseurs, the stage is set for the 21st edition of Bharat Rang Mahotsav, the largest theatre festival of Asia, in the national capital of New Delhi on Saturday.
The festival is being hosted by the world renowned National School of Drama (NSD), India’s premiere institute for theatre arts and education in New Delhi, set up by Government of India since six decades, with the objective “to contribute to the growth and development of theatre across the country.”
“From being a national festival that presented the works of some of the most creative theatre personalities in India, it has grown into an international event, hosting theatre companies from around the world,” NSD officials informed.
The 21st edition of the festival this year, spanning over 21 days, would stage 91 plays in 21 languages. While Hindi tops the table with 18 plays, Bengali follows with 11, Assamese (6), English (4), Manipuri (3) and Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi and Odia with two plays each. Konkani, Tamil, Awadhi, Bundeli, Chhatisgarhi, Malwi, Maithili and Bhojpuri languages are having singular representations.
Interestingly, there are plays in non-verbal language genre of theatre.
The screening committee watched 795 entries from India and 71 from foreign countries from which the 91 plays were shortlisted that included 10 productions from six foreign countries – Nepal, Russia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Czech Republic and USA.
Besides the national capital where performances would be staged at three venues – NSD campus, Kamani auditorium and Shri Ram Centre – the festival would be presented in five Indian cities – Shillong, Dehradun, Nagpur, Puducherry and Villupuram in Tamil Nadu.
