Indian Theatre: Modern Indian theatre

Andher Nagari is a short farce by Bharatendu Harishchandra (1850–1885) of Banaras, who is regarded as the father of modern Hindi literature and of modern Hindi theatre. Its city where 'bhaji and khaja sell at one ser for a taka' and its witless king satirise misrule, and it is still widely staged. Jaishankar Prasad wrote historical plays such as Skandagupta and Chandragupta in the early twentieth century; Mohan Rakesh and Dharamvir Bharati belong to the post-1947 period.

The National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi, was set up by the Sangeet Natak Akademi as one of its constituent units in 1959. In 1975 it became an independent entity registered as an autonomous society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, fully financed by the Ministry of Culture. Under Ebrahim Alkazi, its director from 1962 to 1977, it became the country's leading theatre school.

IPTA came into being on 25 May 1943 at a national conference held at the Marwari School in Bombay, against the background of the Bengal famine and the anti-fascist and anti- colonial movements; its first president was the trade unionist N. M. Joshi. The name 'People's Theatre' was suggested by Homi J. Bhabha, inspired by Romain Rolland's book on people's theatre. Nabanna was written by Bijon Bhattacharya and staged by IPTA in October 1944, directed by Sombhu Mitra; Utpal Dutt came later, with the Little Theatre Group.

The Parsi theatre grew in Bombay from the 1850s, run by commercial companies largely owned and financed by Parsis, and later toured across India and beyond. It was a city theatre of the proscenium stage, with painted drop-curtains, stage machinery, music and melodrama, in Urdu-Hindustani and Gujarati. Its writers included Agha Hashr Kashmiri, famous for Urdu adaptations of Shakespeare, and Narayan Prasad Betab and Radheshyam Kathavachak. Its style strongly shaped early Indian cinema.

Habib Tanvir (1923–2009) founded the Naya Theatre in 1959 and worked with folk performers from Chhattisgarh, using their songs, dialect and Nacha style. His best-known productions include Agra Bazar (1954), on the poet Nazir Akbarabadi, and Charandas Chor (1975), the tale of an honest thief. Badal Sircar developed the 'Third Theatre' in Bengal; B. V. Karanth was a director and composer who later founded Rangayana in Mysore; Ratan Thiyam founded the Chorus Repertory Theatre in Imphal.

Ashadh Ka Ek Din (1958), a Hindi play imagining the life of the poet Kalidasa, is by Mohan Rakesh. Ghashiram Kotwal (1972), a Marathi play set in Peshwa-era Pune, is by Vijay Tendulkar. Tughlaq (1964), a Kannada play on Muhammad bin Tughluq, is by Girish Karnad. Andha Yug (1954), the verse play set on the last day of the Mahabharata war, is by Dharamvir Bharati; Badal Sircar is known for Evam Indrajit and his 'Third Theatre'.

Badal Sircar (1925–2011) moved from the proscenium to what he called the Third Theatre, an alternative to both urban commercial theatre and rural folk theatre. With his group Satabdi he staged plays in rooms, courtyards and streets with bare means, often for free, so that actor and audience shared one space. His plays include Evam Indrajit and Michhil. Utpal Dutt was known for political theatre with the Little Theatre Group, Sombhu Mitra founded Bohurupee, and Vijay Tendulkar wrote in Marathi.

Two statements are correct. NSD, set up in 1959 as a unit of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, became an autonomous registered society in 1975. NSD launched the Bharat Rang Mahotsav in 1999; the first edition opened on 18 March 1999 with Girish Karnad's Nagamandala. Ebrahim Alkazi was NSD's most influential director (1962–1977), but the first director was Satu Sen (1959–1961). World Theatre Day (27 March) was begun in 1961 by the International Theatre Institute, not by the Sangeet Natak Akademi.