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National School of Drama to stage four plays at Balwant Gargi Auditorium as part of its Bharat Rang Mahotsav 2025

“I regard the theater as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being. This supremacy of the theater...
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(L-R) Suman Vaidya, Pradeep Kumar Mohanty, Chittaranjan Tripathy & Bharat Gupt from National School of Drama
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“I regard the theater as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being. This supremacy of the theater derives from the fact that it is always ‘now’ on the stage.”

― Thornton Wilder/ Oscar Wilde

As the National School of Drama gets ready for what its director Chittaranjan Tripathy calls Mahakumbh of theatre, the famed Bharat Rang Mahotsav 2025, one of its tributaries will land right in Bathinda district in Punjab.

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The theatre extravaganza that opens in New Delhi today at Kamani auditorium would be celebrated across 13 cities, including two in foreign countries namely Colombo and Kathmandu, in a first of its kind initiative in foreign lands.

Featuring more than 200 unique productions from nine different countries, the festival includes myriad flavours and colours of theatre. Though its credo line goes ‘ek rang, shresth rang’ in actuality it will be a complete bouquet of theatre. From folk forms to tribal, from classical to contemporary, from non-verbal to verbal, the festival will showcase many traditions of theatre all through 20 days of its run time.

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In Bathinda the festival kickstarts on February 8 and concludes on February 12, offering five insightful plays. “Reasons for choosing Bathinda in Punjab,’ according to Tripathi, ‘is our endeavour to spread the fragrance of the 25-year-old festival in hitherto unexplored areas, where the festival has not gone before.”

He further adds, “In Punjab since in the previous editions Chandigarh and Amritsar have been satellite locations, we decided to move to fresher pastures.” Besides he shares they got immense support from organising partners in Bathinda.

Starting February 8, theatre buffs in Bathinda will get to savour Hindi play Antim Raat. Starring noted actor Rajendra Gupta, the play takes a leaf out of the Founder of Pakistan Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s life, days before the Partition of India. His fractured relationship with his daughter Dina Wadia who like him married a Parsi forms the dramatic core of the play.

Other plays in the offing at the Balwant Gargi auditorium are Abhijaan in Bengali, which focuses upon the volatile period of Bengal, and Phoenix Pokhi in Assamese will be staged on February 11. Swapanlok in Hindi is inspired by an interesting folktale of a woodcutter and realisation of his dreams in a fairytale fashion.

If you are wondering why a Punjabi play is not part of the Bathinda capsule Tripathi has a credible answer. “For people in Bathinda must have watched plays in their language by Punjabi theatre stalwarts several times. The idea is to introduce them to plays in other languages and regions.”

Bharat Rang Mahotsav will showcase plays in nearly 21 languages and Punjabi certainly is one of them.  Noted theatreperson Navdeep Kaur’s play Sohni Mahiwal, a production of the department of Indian Theatre, Panjab University, Chandigarh is also an integral part of the festival, only it will be staged in New Delhi.

No doubt, New Delhi which is where the hallowed institute was set up in 1959 as part of Sangeet Natak Akademi and later emerged as an autonomous entity will be the epicenter of majority of its allied activities.

Besides interactive sessions with directors, master-classes, a dedicated programme on literary arts, ‘Shruti’ will feature book launches and discussions on literature. Another major highlight of the festival is in line with its last year’s brainchild of largest number of artistic performances themed around a common subject. This year through an interesting programme Vishwa Jan Rang, a short play bringing out the relevance of Natyashastra, will connect people and cities across different continents.

Noted actor Rajpal Yadav, NSD’s distinguished alumnus, is immensely excited by this idea in particular and one day would like to feature in a play based on Bharat Muni’s treatise on performing art of theatre.  For now Yadav is too happy to be the festival’s brand ambassador.

Of course, NSD’s real brand value lies in its vast repertory of plays. Incidentally, Bharat Rang Mahotsav coincides with the 65th Anniversary of the National School of Drama, and the 60th Anniversary of the National School of Drama Repertory Company. Hence The Repertory Company which is celebrating Rang Shashthi theatre festival series, staging some of its most popular plays on various platforms across the nation, will also present some of its productions during the Bharat Rang Mahotsav.

If the live medium of theatre ignites your imagination, get ready for Bharat Rang Mahotsav 2025,   where NSD is expected to fire on all four cylinders.

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