Nirdigantha: The story of a theatre incubation centre

Located near Srirangapatna, actor Prakash Rai’s one-of-its kind initiative aims to nurture new theatre, writes S R Ramakrishna

Nirdigantha is Prakash Rai’s dream project, located in K Shettihalli near Srirangapatna, about two hours by road from Bengaluru. It is described as India’s first and only theatre incubation centre.

The name comes from Kuvempu’s anthem, ‘O nanna chetana’. The widely sung poem exhorts the spirit not to be walled in, and to rise above the horizon (‘Nirdigantavaagi eru’).

“I wanted a space that would be free and liberating,” says Prakash, as we sit chatting in the open dining area, interrupted occasionally by loud bird chirping and hooting. Conventionally, in theatre, he says, “you go and do what you are taught”. He has a different vision for Nirdigantha — he wants it to be a place for unlearning.

Lead Theatre sessions in progress at Nirdigantha

When a theatre school is funded by the government, he says, it comes with its share of pressures, mostly ideological. Karnataka is already rich in theatre institutions — Ninasam in Heggodu, Rangayana in Mysuru, Natana in Mandya, Shivasanchara in Sanehalli — and Prakash wanted to create something that would not replicate what they were already doing. Nirdigantha is not focused on formal diplomas and productions. “A production is two months of rehearsals and a show,” he says. “But what we are trying to do is create an ecosystem that helps theatre thrive.”

Nirdigantha took birth on July 29, 2023. It debuted with a play called ‘Gayagalu’ (Wounds). About 20 students, including those who had graduated from the Sanehalli theatre school, were handpicked for the production. They were trained for two months, and worked on a new script. It was about war. “They did a public show, and then took it to universities and colleges,” he recalls.

Actor Prakash Rai (in black) looks in on a workshop at Nirdigantha

Tool of social change

Nirdigantha sees theatre as a “tool in education”. Theatre, it believes, must impart human values when formal schools push information as education. “Unesco says students should be taught social justice, sensitivity and scientific thinking,” he says. “That is what I don’t find in the system.”

The Shalaranga initiative came about against this background. Five directors prepared for two months and then travelled to five districts, where they stayed in residential schools and taught theatre. Their work culminated in a theatre festival. All through these activities, the directors made notes, and their inputs are expected to go into the making of a curriculum for Nirdigantha’s ‘theatre in education’ push.

One of Nirdigantha’s major concerns is that Kannada theatre has become Bengaluru-centric. Nirdigantha is getting theatre people from the northern and coastal districts to get active in addressing this imbalance.

Months after launch, Nirdigantha hosted theatre festivals in Mangaluru and Chikkamagaluru, getting local groups to present their productions. It then handpicked five groups and gave them a grant of Rs 4 lakh each. They had to go out and produce a play each. In a year’s time, their efforts resulted in eight new plays.

“The groups are performing these plays…. Once a play is written, it is theirs,” says Prakash. K P Lakshman’s play ‘Bob Marley from Kodihalli’ was created this way. “They got Rs 2 lakh to pay the actors, and Rs 2 lakh for the production,” he explains. A play that director Arun Lal had been trying to bring to the stage in Kerala for years, was finally performed by a group from Mangaluru. “They were brilliant and are travelling,” he shares. “This is how incubation works… it is not about being in just one place.”

Different roles

The 5 acre campus has residential quarter for artists, open library, and a rehearsal preview hall.

A stream flows by the side of Nirdigantha, and the campus is dotted with niches that encourage chatting, reading and rehearsing. The library has no doors and locks. Prakash, who dropped out of St Joseph’s College of Commerce when he was in the second year of his BCom course, sees himself as an auto-didact. He prides himself on being an architect, and has designed the structures himself. “I also cook,” he says.

Prakash Raj is the screen name of Prakash Rai, and many outside Karnataka know him as the deep-voiced bad man in lavishly mounted films. He is pitted against the biggest stars in at least six languages, and is mobbed when he appears in public in cities across India. He is also a bad man for supporters of Modi — he is an outspoken critic of the prime minister and his party. It is not uncommon for him to get trolled for his political positions. 

Before he debuted in the Tamil film ‘Duet’ (1994), Prakash had been active in Kannada theatre and TV. Two years after his hit film debut, he acted in the Kannada film ‘Nagamandala’, based on a Girish Karnad play that was inspired by a folk tale that A K Ramanujan had narrated to the playwright. Prakash’s film career took off in a big way, and he got to direct films, too.

After three decades of success in films, when Prakash was looking for new horizons to explore, he was advised by his well-wishers to consider returning to theatre. He didn’t just want to act, but the idea of theatre incubation appealed to him. He has worked out a way to spend time at Nirdigantha even while he stars in major film productions. “I am just an hour-and-a-half away from Chennai, Hyderabad, and Mumbai,” he says.

Space for collaborations

Shalaranga is a key initiative to popularize theatre among school children.

Nirdigantha is looking at a host of activities, in addition to scripting. It has a band, now busy with making music for poetry and theatre songs. Many experts have visited the centre to interact with actors and backstage technicians. Jyoti Dogra, who has made a name for her solo theatre shows, was among those who conducted workshops at Nirdigantha as it completed its first year. Fourteen actors from across Karnataka gathered for a five-day workshop to understand how they could script, direct and act in solo shows of their own.

An international group, with German, Russian, and Nigerian members, asked if it could do some brainstorming at Nirdigantha. Prakash requested them to arrive early and spend time with Karnataka actors. “I asked them what they could bring to the table…. I don’t want rent! They introduced our actors to documentary theatre, you know, how theatre can be used to document experiences,” he says.

The Arun Lal connection got Nirdigantha thinking about a Malayalam production that would help actors and singers from Kerala and Karnataka to collaborate. “We can create a bilingual performance. This is the kind of fresh experimentation we want to do. This was what was lacking,” Prakash says. One of Nirdigantha’s objectives is to facilitate exposure to hitherto unfamiliar forms, methods and approaches.

Prakash sees himself as a theatre actor from an era when many tall Kannada playwrights were active. He remembers the plays of Girish Karnad, Chandrashekar Kambar, P Lankesh, H S Shivaprakash from the days he was active on the Bengaluru stage. Not enough plays are being written with contemporary themes, and that makes him anxious. “The connection between literature and theatre is lost,” he says. And that is why he is persuading writers like Vasudhendra, Jayant Kaikini and K Y Narayanaswamy to write plays.

The inter-class, inter-college theatre festivals of the 1970s have vanished, and institutions aren’t invested  in theatre like they used to be. Kannada theatre must bring back its audiences and vibrancy, he believes. “There may be people working in Hassan, Sakleshpur and Mangaluru, but they are islands, and we have to string them together,” he says.

About 30 to 40 people can stay at Nirdigantha, which has 16 rooms. “It is not a repertory where people stay permanently. They mostly come and go, working on various projects,” says Prakash. Nirdigantha is setting up a recording studio to produce videos for its YouTube channel. Theatre practitioners will use it to tell stories, read poems, and present their music.

Devanoora Mahadeva, the renowned writer who lives in Mysuru, drops by occasionally at Nirdigantha. Krupakar and Senani, the well-known wildlife filmmakers, are among those mentoring the centre. “Prakash has developed a close rapport with people living in K Shettihalli, and he has been working on this centre without a break,” says Krupakar, who has seen the evolution of Nirdigantha since the days it was conceived.

Support system

Nirdigantha gets resource persons from Bengaluru, Mysuru and other cities. Art director Raju comes in when his services are required. The non-teaching staff come mostly from the village nearby. Two cooks work in the kitchen, and an electrician and plumber are on call. Since Nirdigantha takes its work across Karnataka, it has its own vehicles and drivers.

At the theatre schools, students pay a fee and do a course. Then, if they are chosen as cast or crew, they get paid when they go touring with their productions. The difference here is that Nirdigantha invests. The 13 members of Shalaranga get Rs 30,000 a month, and the five directors associated with Shalaranga Vikasa, the residential school outreach, get Rs 40,000. “We are building a support system,” says Prakash.

Once Shalaranga develops a curriculum, Nirdigantha will stop sending them out to schools. Instead, it will be a training centre for theatre instructors. Any institution that wants its theatre teachers trained can send them to Nirdigantha.

Over the past eight months, Shalaranga and Shalaranga Vikasa have been key focus areas, says Anush Shetty, who composes music for Nirdigantha. Under Shalaranga, 10 graduates from theatre institutes like Rangayana and Ninasam have so far been trained to conduct theatre classes for students in government residential schools. They introduce children to songs, theatre games, skits, plays, and puppetry.

“They have covered 107 schools, reaching as far as Honnavar and Gadag. For most students, this was their first exposure to theatre, and they were thrilled by the worlds we transported them to,” he says. Students responded with letters, sharing how they cried during the puppetry show and made friends with classmates they hadn’t earlier mixed with. Some wanted to meet Prakash and become actors. Shalaranga Vikasa integrates theatre into primary school classes for six months. “In video messages, students shared how theatre has transformed them — from shy to confident. Some now see maths and science as stories, and want to perform science skits,” he says.

This week, a milestone was reached with 60 shows of ‘Tindige Banda Tunderaya’. Their play featured a north Karnataka cast, and used the dialect of the region. An adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s work, it tells the story of a mobster who takes over a vegetable market.

Prakash, 59, says he is putting Rs 3 crore to Rs 4 crore into Nirdigantha — he expects his “soul project” to sail smoothly for three to four years on his spend. He believes the good work will bring in the sustenance thereafter. “I had to walk the talk first,” he says, hinting that others may step in with support in the coming years.

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