Do you love drama? Kala Academy, Panjim will be a buzzing centre as some of the country’s best plays will be a treat for theatre goers. The National School of Drama (NSD) is organising its flagship Bharat Rang Mahotsav (BRM), the International Theatre Festival of India, in Goa, organized in collaboration with the Directorate of Art & Culture, Goa from January 29 to February 1. The opening ceremony will be held at Master Dinanath Mangeshkar Kala Mandir, Kala Academy, Panjm at 6 pm on January 29. The four-day festival will open with the play ‘Naagmandal’, written by Girish Karnad.
This edition of the festival coincides with the 65th Anniversary of the NSD, and the 60th Anniversary of the NSD Repertory Company. To commemorate these milestones, the Repertory Company is celebrating the Rang Shashthi theatre festival series, staging some of its most popular plays on various platforms across the nation. Renowned actor and NSD alumnus Rajpal Yadav is the festival ambassador for this year.
BRM 2025, which spans a period of 20 days, from January 28 to February 16, in Delhi will feature more than 200 unique productions from nine different countries apart from India, showcased across 11 locations in India and two abroad, in Sri Lanka and Nepal. The international theatre groups participating in the festival are from Russia, Italy, Germany, Norway, Czech Republic, Nepal, Taiwan, Spain, and Sri Lanka.
Pradeep Naik is an eminent Goan theatre personality who was recently awarded the Kala Vriddhi Award. “This festival will be a very good experience for theatre lovers. These plays are some of the best and it comes with great technical details like the background music, the setting and the light work. However, the focus will also be on the story, direction and the performance of the brilliant actors. This festival will bring in a variety of plays in Hindi and Marathi from different parts of the country. After each play, there is a discussion with the directors which gives an insight into the workings of the play. It is a must for young artistes to witness the four-day festival,” says Pradeep.
Writer and director, Daksha Shirodkar is one of Goa’s first National School of Drama alumni. She is currently in New Delhi, as a technical in-charge of one of the auditoriums at National School of Drama, Delhi for the festival till February 16. “Goan artists should go and watch this festival because NSD is one of the autonomous institutes in all over India. Of the four plays in Goa, two are of Repertory Company, National School of Drama. One should watch them in order to understand the professionalism, as well as the discipline, quality of the plays and the dedication of the actors and artistes, towards theatre," says Daksha, who informs that Goa is a satellite space of the festival. She further adds, "I couldn't apply for the festival because I had some copyright issues. I will be applying for the coming year as NSD
is my parent institute and it feels like
a home ground."
Only Goan play in the festival
'Palshetchi Vihir' is a Marathi docudrama based on the life of Hirabai Pednekar, the first woman Marathi playwright, that too from Goa. Directed by Deepak Amonker, her role is played by Madhuri Shetkar. While Deepak's other plays have been part of the previous three edititons of the same festival, it is still special for the cast and crew to perform in Goa.
"It is a great honor because out of around 850 plays from all over the world, we have been selected, one of the Goan play is selected. We are performing our play on January 30. For the selection, we had to perform the play, shoot it and send in September and by December, we got confirmation. This play also won the first place in an All Goa and Maharashtra competition, two years back.
He urges theatre lovers to attend the festival as it is a great opportunity to experience the best of performing arts. "The selection process is very tough. The quality of the plays and the festival is great and even two plays from Delhi NSD Repertory will be played. I request artistes and other technical teams and even the audience, should come, watch and enjoy these plays,"
says Deepak.