<p>The theatre community in Bengaluru is outraged over the revision of the fee structure for the National School of Drama’s acting course.</p>.<p>Many stalwarts in Kannada theatre are alumni of the institute. Established in 1959 in Delhi, NSD is an autonomous institution under the Government of India’s ministry of culture.</p>.<p>The institute’s Mumbai centre has announced it is charging Rs 6 lakh for its year-long acting course from this year, with a discount of Rs 1 lakh if the fee is paid at one go.</p>.<p>Noted Kannada poet and theatre person Raghunandana, an alumnus of NSD, says the fee hike is a ‘betrayal’ of everything that the drama school stood for and fostered. “Students no longer remain students. They become customers and clients,” he says. He believes 99% of NSD alumni would not have been able to afford such high fees.</p>.<p>When a government institute starts looking at education from a business perspective, it becomes a matter of concern, says Nataraj Honnavali, a well-known theatre person.</p>.<p>“Mere survival is a challenge for most theatre artistes. They are forced to take up day jobs to support themselves. How will they pay so much?” he says.</p>.<p><strong>B’luru centre status</strong></p>.<p>At the Bengaluru centre of NSD, housed in Kalagrama, Mallathahalli, students pay Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 as entry fee. They get a Rs 6,000 scholarship every month which covers accommodation and mess charges.</p>.<p>The new fee structure is at the moment only applicable at the Mumbai centre. Honnavalli, who has also taught at NSD, fears it will be extended to other centres as well.</p>.<p><strong>In comparison…</strong></p>.<p>In Karnataka, theatre institutes like Ninasam, Honnavali says, charge only about Rs 20,000, and offer high quality training.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The fee for a year-long course in Indian classical theatre in Varanasi, according to the NSD’s official website for the centre, is Rs 150 per month.</p>.From better roads to gaps in education: What Bengaluru 'Gen Z' students are protesting.<p class="bodytext">Senior journalist and writer G N Mohan fears the new fee structure marks a departure from the basic philosophy that guided NSD all these decades. “NSD began with a vision to understand society through theatre — for the underprivileged and for those for whom education was inaccessible. That is why theatre artistes from different corners of the country travelled to NSD to sharpen their skills,” he shares. Mohan believes it’s another example of the government’s attempt at breaking all intellectual centres.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Mangala N, founder of the troupe Sanchari, says: “Art and theatre cannot be commercialised. Fee structures like this are simply unrealistic for the marginalised. Institutions run by the government have lost their vision, and this makes us all anxious.”</p>.<p class="bodytext">A host of Bollywood actors, including Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Irrfan and Ratna Pathak Shah, studied at NSD.</p>
<p>The theatre community in Bengaluru is outraged over the revision of the fee structure for the National School of Drama’s acting course.</p>.<p>Many stalwarts in Kannada theatre are alumni of the institute. Established in 1959 in Delhi, NSD is an autonomous institution under the Government of India’s ministry of culture.</p>.<p>The institute’s Mumbai centre has announced it is charging Rs 6 lakh for its year-long acting course from this year, with a discount of Rs 1 lakh if the fee is paid at one go.</p>.<p>Noted Kannada poet and theatre person Raghunandana, an alumnus of NSD, says the fee hike is a ‘betrayal’ of everything that the drama school stood for and fostered. “Students no longer remain students. They become customers and clients,” he says. He believes 99% of NSD alumni would not have been able to afford such high fees.</p>.<p>When a government institute starts looking at education from a business perspective, it becomes a matter of concern, says Nataraj Honnavali, a well-known theatre person.</p>.<p>“Mere survival is a challenge for most theatre artistes. They are forced to take up day jobs to support themselves. How will they pay so much?” he says.</p>.<p><strong>B’luru centre status</strong></p>.<p>At the Bengaluru centre of NSD, housed in Kalagrama, Mallathahalli, students pay Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 as entry fee. They get a Rs 6,000 scholarship every month which covers accommodation and mess charges.</p>.<p>The new fee structure is at the moment only applicable at the Mumbai centre. Honnavalli, who has also taught at NSD, fears it will be extended to other centres as well.</p>.<p><strong>In comparison…</strong></p>.<p>In Karnataka, theatre institutes like Ninasam, Honnavali says, charge only about Rs 20,000, and offer high quality training.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The fee for a year-long course in Indian classical theatre in Varanasi, according to the NSD’s official website for the centre, is Rs 150 per month.</p>.From better roads to gaps in education: What Bengaluru 'Gen Z' students are protesting.<p class="bodytext">Senior journalist and writer G N Mohan fears the new fee structure marks a departure from the basic philosophy that guided NSD all these decades. “NSD began with a vision to understand society through theatre — for the underprivileged and for those for whom education was inaccessible. That is why theatre artistes from different corners of the country travelled to NSD to sharpen their skills,” he shares. Mohan believes it’s another example of the government’s attempt at breaking all intellectual centres.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Mangala N, founder of the troupe Sanchari, says: “Art and theatre cannot be commercialised. Fee structures like this are simply unrealistic for the marginalised. Institutions run by the government have lost their vision, and this makes us all anxious.”</p>.<p class="bodytext">A host of Bollywood actors, including Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Irrfan and Ratna Pathak Shah, studied at NSD.</p>