UpdateBot at 17:35, 24 October 2021

2021-10-24T17:35:03Z

New page

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}
{{Infobox recurring event
| name= Bharat Rang Mahotsav
| logo=20th Bharat Rang Mahotsav 2019.png
| image=
| caption=
| location= [[New Delhi]]
| years_active=1999 – present
| founded= 1999
| dates= Third week of January
| genre= [[Drama|Theatre]]
| attendance=
| patron= [[National School of Drama]]
| website= [https://nsd.gov.in/delhi/index.php/bharat-rang-mahotsav/ Official website]
}}
'''Bharat Rang Mahotsav''' ('''BRM''') (भारत रंग महोत्सव) or the '''National Theatre Festival''', started in 1999, is the annual [[theatre festival]] organised by [[National School of Drama]] (NSD), [[New Delhi]]. The festival was started to showcase works of Indian theatre practitioners, and it has grown over the years to attract international performers as well. National School of Drama is India's premier theatre training institute funded by [[Govt. of India]].

Originally the festival was national in scope, but has gradually become an international one.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nsd.gov.in/delhi/index.php/bharat-rang-mahotsav/|title=Bharat Rang Mahotsav|language=en-US|access-date=2019-10-03}}</ref>

The 2009 Festival featured 63 productions, out of which 51 were from India and 12 were overseas plays, over a span of 12 days. Today it is acknowledged as the largest theatre festival of [[Asia]], dedicated solely to theatre <ref name=bh>{{cite news |title=11th Bharat Rang Mahotsav to begin from Jan 7 |url= http://www.financialexpress.com/news/11th-bharat-rang-mahotsav-to-begin-from-jan-7/406807/|publisher=[[The Financial Express (India)|Financial Express]] |date=5 January 2009 }}</ref> 15th Bharat Rang Mahotsav

The festival is generally held during the second week of January each year at venues in and around NSD campus, and also in a one "showcase city", where a "Satellite Festival" of Bharat Rang Mahotsav is held. For example, in 2009, the venue [[Lucknow]] saw 18 productions. In 2010 the venue was Bhopal.<ref name=bh/>

==History==

===1999-2009===
'''1st BRM''': The first ever all-Indian theatre festival, Bharat Rang Mahotsav 1999, opened on 18 March in New Delhi, with staging of [[Girish Karnad]]'s play ''Nagamandala'' (Hindi) directed by [[Amal Allana]]. Held during the tenure [[Ram Gopal Bajaj]] as NSD Director, the festival also featured Calcutta-based [[Nandikar]] group's solo act ''Meghnad Badh Kavya'' (Bengali) written by [[Michael Madhusudan Dutta]], Girish Karnad's ''Agni aur Barkha'' (Hindi) directed by [[Prasanna (theatre director)|Prasanna]], [[Ajneya]]'s ''Uttar Priyadarshi'' (Manipuri) directed by [[Ratan Thiyam]] and ''Himmat Mai'' (Hindi), an adaptation of [[Brecht]]'s [[Mother Courage]], and plays in several Indian languages, including Tamil, Malayalam, Assamese, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Punjabi, Dogri and Bhojpuri. A silent performance of Shakespeare's Othello, with only a few "sounds" in Arabic, directed by Teofik Jebali from [[Tunisia]] was only foreign entry.<ref>{{cite news |title=All the world's classics, on a stage |url=http://www.indianexpress.com/ie/daily/19990318/ile18004.html |work=[[The Indian Express]] |date=18 March 1999}}</ref>

'''4th BRM''': The 4th Bharat Rang Mahotsav, was inaugurated by [[Pandit Ravi Shankar]] on 16 March 2002, and featured 126 dramas in more than 20 languages, and plays from five other countries, including Korea, Bangladesh, Germany, Israel and Mauritius. The focus of the festival was on theatre from [[West Bengal]] and the [[North-East India|North East]], showcased in four productions from [[Manipur]], including ''Bhoot Amusung'' (Devil and the Mask) directed by L Dorendra, five from Assam with 'Hamlet' by Dulal Roy and nine plays from West Bengal. [[Nagaland]], showcased its dances, and ''Nidhali'' with young dancers under NSD graduate Rabijita Gogoi, as part of an NSD extension programme, finally [[Mizoram]] presented ''Zanriah El Hmain'' by Siddharth Chakraborty. The plays were staged at eight venues in and around NSD, and the festival concluded on 8 April, with [[Ratan Thiyam]]'s presentation of [[Kalidasa]]'s epic poem ''[[Ritusamhaara|Ritusamharam]]''.<ref>{{cite web |title=BHARAT RANG MAHOTSAV : A RETROSPECTIVE|author= Kavita Nagpal |url=http://pib.nic.in/feature/feyr2002/fapr2002/f170420021.html |date=16 April 2002 |publisher=Press Information Bureau ([[Govt. of India]]) }}</ref>

'''7th BRM''': Seventh Bharat Rang Mahotsav held January, 2005, in New Delhi, was marked by veteran theatre director, [[Mohan Maharishi]]'s breakthrough Hindi play, "Ho Rahega Kuch Na Kuch" inspired by [[Marsha Norman]]'s 1983 English play, "[['night, Mother|'Night, Mother]]".<ref>{{cite news |title=An unusual show: In "Ho Rahega Kuch Na Kuch".. |url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/fr/2005/02/11/stories/2005021101360300.htm |work=[[The Hindu]] |date=11 February 2005 |access-date=15 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606101849/http://www.hinduonnet.com/fr/2005/02/11/stories/2005021101360300.htm |archive-date=6 June 2011 |url-status=usurped }}</ref>

'''8th BRM''': Eighth Bharat Rang Mahotsav (2006) showcased 60 plays from all over India, and also from Asia and the Arab world. A three-day international seminar titled "Theatre in Turmoil" was inaugurated by [[Richard Schechner]], a theatre scholar and director, participated by theatre directors, scholars, critics and designers from China, Japan, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, South Korea and India.<ref>{{cite news |title=Big guns fail, yet NSD booms |url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/fr/2006/01/20/stories/2006012002140300.htm |work=[[The Hindu]] |date=20 January 2006 |access-date=15 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606101841/http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/fr/2006/01/20/stories/2006012002140300.htm |archive-date=6 June 2011 |url-status=usurped }}</ref>

'''9th BRM''': Ninth Bharat Rang Mahotsav opened at [[Siri Fort Auditorium]] on 6 January 2007 with a performance by [[Sasha Waltz]], the dancer-cum-choreographer from Germany, and featured the 52 performances, 13 from Australia, Bangladesh, China, Pakistan, Germany, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Nepal, Poland, Sri Lanka, Switzerland and Uzbekistan, and 39 Indian productions including tribute production, theatre director [[Alyque Padamsee]]'s play "Macbeth", and choreographer Narendra Sharma's "Mukhantar and Conference". The International dance theatre showcased works of Leszek Bzdyl, Beatrice Jaccard and Peter Schelling, also Indian dancers and choreographers like [[Maya Krishna Rao]], [[Padmini Chettur]], Geeta Chandran and Veenapani Chawla. The "Satellite Festival" was held at Kolkata, from 12 and 20 January.<ref>{{cite news |title=Theatre lovers in for a feast|author=Madhur Tankha |url=http://www.hindu.com/2007/01/02/stories/2007010204130200.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604103410/http://www.hindu.com/2007/01/02/stories/2007010204130200.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=4 June 2011 |date=2 January 2007 |work=[[The Hindu]]|location=Chennai, India }}</ref>
[[File:Ratna Pathak.jpg|right|thumb|[[Ratna Pathak]] during performance at 2008 festival]]

'''10th BRM''': In 2008, when NSD celebrated its golden jubilee the festival also saw a gathering of its alumni from all over the country, and from Bangladesh, Nepal and Mauritius. The festival was on 3 January inaugurated by Delhi Chief Minister, [[Sheila Dikshit]] in the presence of theatre personality, [[Ebrahim Alkazi]] at [[Kamani Auditorium]], New Delhi. The opening performance was "Prologue", the first part of [[Ratan Thiyam]]'s "Manipur Trilogy" and in all the festival featured 76 productions, 57 from India and 19 from abroad stretched over 17 days. 26 productions also travelled to [[Mumbai]] for the "Satellite Festival" organised, from 6 to 17 January, as it showcased plays of NSD graduates, including Ratan Thiyam's Prologue, Bansi Kaul (Aranyadhipati Tantiya), Neelam Mansingh Chowdhury (The Suit), Sanjay Upadhyay (Harsingar), Baharul Islam (Akash), Mohan Maharishi (Dear Bapu)) and M K Raina (Stay Yet Awhile).<ref>[http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Features/Culture_Cauldron/National_School_of_Drama_celebrates_golden_jubilee_in_style/rssarticleshow/2694072.cms National School of Drama celebrates golden jubilee in style] [[The Economic Times]], 12 January 2008.</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Celebrating 50 years of NSD|author=Manisha Jha|url=http://www.hindu.com/2007/12/27/stories/2007122750620200.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071230102238/http://www.hindu.com/2007/12/27/stories/2007122750620200.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=30 December 2007 |work=[[The Hindu]] |date=27 December 2007 |location=Chennai, India}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Stage presence:The curtain goes up on the 50th year of the National School of Drama |url=http://www.livemint.com/2008/01/03235613/Stage-presence.html |publisher=[[Mint (newspaper)|Mint]] |date=3 January 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/the-graduates/255144/|title=The Graduates|date=28 December 2007|work=The Indian Express|accessdate=2 April 2010|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004221012/http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/the-graduates/255144/|archivedate=4 October 2012}}</ref>

'''11th BRM''': The 11th Bharat Rang Mahotsav, was inaugurated by Jawhar Sircar, Union Secretary for Culture, on 7 January 2009 at Kamani Auditorium, with theatre personality [[Zohra Sehgal]], as the guest of honour, and opened with the performance of the Marathi play ''"Awagha Rang Ekachi Zaala"''. The festival focused on the productions by young directors, thus the included plays are collaborative works, based on texts, adaptations and also plays developed through training and workshops,<ref name=bh/><ref>{{cite news |title= Of the old and the new:"Awagha Rang Ekachi Zaala" proved that popular theatre doesn’t have to be vulgar.|url=http://www.hindu.com/fr/2009/01/30/stories/2009013050100300.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107150100/http://www.hindu.com/fr/2009/01/30/stories/2009013050100300.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=7 November 2012 |work=[[The Hindu]] |date=30 January 2009 |location=Chennai, India}}</ref> in all it featured 65 plays, 51 from India and 13 international productions, played across 7 venues.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.livemint.com/2009/01/05234816/Play-by-numbers.html|title=Play by numbers|date=5 January 2009|publisher=[[Mint (newspaper)|Mint]]|accessdate=2 April 2010}}</ref>

[[File:20 Rang Mahotsav.jpg|thumb|20 Rang Mahotsav in 2019]]
===2010 - present===
'''12th BRM''': The 2010 Festival, featured close to 90 plays, including 13 international productions, and productions by theatre veterans, Ratan Thiyam's "When we Dead Awaken" and S. Ramanujam's "Veriattam". The festival highlighted the role of music in theatre, through a segment titled ''Natya Naad'', featuring trademark songs of various parts of India and of various theatre personalities, and performances based on the music in the works of [[B.V. Karanth]], [[Bhaskar Chandavarkar]], [[K. N. Panikkar]] and [[Indian People's Theatre Association|IPTA]] music.<ref>{{cite news |title=Play it again: Music, a forgotten component of theatre, ... |url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/play-it-again/565399/ |work=[[The Indian Express]] |date=10 January 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Talking theatre|url=http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/theatre/article74498.ece |work=[[The Hindu]] |date=2 January 2010 }}</ref> It also included Parwaz, a puppet theatre group from [[Kabul]], [[Afghanistan]] with 'The Wolf and the Goat' and 'The Hedgehog and the Rabbit', a troupe from Pakistan presenting the [[Urdu]] version of [[Kālidāsa|Kalidas]]'s epic [[Sanskrit]] play ''[[Abhijñānaśākuntalam|Shakuntala]]'', plus from [[Israel]], a clown show titled 'Odysseus Chaoticus'.<ref>{{cite news |title=This isn’t The Theatre of War |url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/This-isn-t-The-Theatre-of-War/565690 |work=[[The Indian Express]] |date=11 January 2010 }}</ref> In 2010, the "showcase city" was [[Bhopal]], the capital of [[Madhya Pradesh]], where a nine-day theatre festival part of the Bharat Rang Mahotsav was inaugurated by the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, showcasing 15 plays national and international plays in Bengali, Malayalam, Manipuri and Kannada as well as English, French and Nepali languages hosted at Ravindra Bhawan and [[Bharat Bhawan]] in Bhopal.<ref>{{cite news |title=Nine-day festival of plays to be inaugurated|url= http://www.zeenews.com/news594774.html|publisher=[[Zee News]] |date=11 January 2010 }}</ref> With highlight being 'Umrao Jaan', 'Quick Death' and [[Ibsen]]'s '[[A Doll's House]]' in Nepali, and "The Doorway," performed by Jyoti Dogra, who also performed the play in Delhi Festival as well.<ref>{{cite news |title=An image to an impulse |url=http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/article76587.ece |work=[[The Hindu]] |date=6 January 2010 }}</ref> Apart from the plays, the festival also hosted a tribute exhibition dedicated to life, works and theatre of [[B.V. Karanth]] and [[Habib Tanvir]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/theatre/article87544.ece|title=Saluting stalwarts|date=21 January 2010 |work=The Hindu|accessdate=2 April 2010}}</ref>

'''13th BRM''': The 2011 festival, showcased 82 plays from across the world, three photographic exhibitions, an Asia-Pacific theatre showcase and new media theatre, from 7 to 22 January. The festival opened with an Assamese adaptation of [[Habib Tanvir]]'s ''[[Charandas Chor]]'' directed by Anup Hazarika, a NSD graduate,<ref>{{cite news |title=Chor dons a new colour |url=http://www.thehindu.com/arts/theatre/article1089827.ece |work=The Hindu|date=13 January 2011 }}</ref> and a special section on theatre personality [[Shyamanand Jalan]], other plays were [[Girish Karnad]]'s ''Bikhre Bimb'', Dharamveer Bharti's ''Suraj ka Satwaan Ghoda'' and [[Henrik Ibsen]]'s ''Lady of the Sea (Sagar Kanya)'', [[Alexander Pushkin]]'s ''Little Big Tragedies'' and [[Rabindranath Tagore]]'s ''Visarjan''. 22 foreign productions from 20 countries were also part of the festival, this included Beaumarchais' opera ''The Barber of Seville'', ''In Viva'', a dance piece, a mime performance ''Silent Words'', by Laurent Decol. From Latin America the festival featured ''Santa Maria de Iquique: Revenge of Ramon'', a puppet performance from ''Pueta Peralta'' (Chile), ''En un Sol Amarillo'' (Bolivia) and ''Muare'' (Argentina). Apart from this two live (interactive) video theatre projects were new features in the festival, "The Garbage Project", about garbage problem in cities and "Social Gaming" on the impact of internet on human lives. The Contemporary dance theatre, section of festival had productions by Nora Amin from Egypt, Wendy Jehlen from the US and Min Tanaka and Aki Takahashi from Japan.

The festival was spread across eight venues in the Delhi, also travelled to Chennai 11–19 January.<ref>{{cite news |title=Delhi gears up for mega winter theatre festival|url=http://ibnlive.in.com/news/delhi-gears-up-for-mega-winter-theatre-festival/139489-19.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110302205618/http://ibnlive.in.com/news/delhi-gears-up-for-mega-winter-theatre-festival/139489-19.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2 March 2011 |publisher=CNN-IBN |date= 5 January 2011 }}</ref>

'''14th BRM''': The 2012 festival also marked the 150th birth anniversary of poet [[Rabindranath Tagore]], thus the festival opened with the performance of Tagore's, ''The King of Dark Chamber'' or ''[[Raja (play)|Raja]]'' directed by [[Ratan Thiyam]] of ''Chorus Repertory Theatre'' from Manipur. This was followed by 14 productions of his works, in all 96 productions including 16 foreign plays, performed across 11 venues in Delhi from 8–22 January 2012. The parallel festival city for the year was Amritsar, Punjab.<ref>{{cite web | title = The National School of Drama's Bharat Rang Mahotsav... Featuring 96 productions...| url = http://www.mumbaitheatreguide.com/dramas/Articles/12/jan/06-the-national-school-of-dramas-bharat-rang-mahotsav-featuring-96-productions.asp|publisher=MumbaiTheatreGuide.com |date=12 January 2012| accessdate = 2013-12-24 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web
| title = Tagore reinterpreted at NSD`s Bharat Rang Mahotsav | url = http://zeenews.india.com/entertainment/art-and-theatre/tagore-reinterpreted-at-nsd-s-bharat-rang-mahotsav_103261.html |date=4 January 2012| accessdate = 2013-12-24}}</ref>

'''18th BRM''': the 2016 Festival was held in 4 satellite cities apart from Delhi - [[Jammu]], [[Bhubaneshwar]], [[Trivandrum]] and [[Ahmedabad]].

==Venue==
Most of the plays during three weeks of the festival, are held at various theatre spaces within the NSD campus, including, Sanmukh, Abhimanch, Bahumukh and Meghdoot Open Air theatre at neighbouring Ravindra Kala Bhawan. Some plays are also held in city's large auditoriums like [[Kamani Auditorium]], [[Shri Ram Centre for Performing Arts|Shri Ram Centre]] and LTG auditorium.<ref name="venue">{{cite web | url=https://delhi-fun-dos.com/tag/venues-for-bharat-rang-mahotsav/ | title=National School of Drama’s Bharat Rang Mahotsav 2020 | publisher=delhi-fun-dos.com | accessdate=14 March 2021}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100102071553/http://www.nsdtheatrefest.com/indexenglish.html Bharat Rang Mahotsav, Official website]
* [http://www.nsd.gov.in Official website of the NSD]
* [http://news.scotsman.com/joycemcmillan/East-is-ready-to-meet.5980227.jp East is ready to meet West again … on its own terms] ''[[The Scotsman]]''

[[Category:Theatre festivals in India]]
[[Category:Festivals in Delhi]]
[[Category:January events]]
[[Category:National School of Drama]]
[[Category:Festivals established in 1999]]
[[Category:1999 establishments in Delhi]]
[[Category:Winter events in India]]

Bharat Rang Mahotsav - Revision history

UpdateBot at 17:35, 24 October 2021