The majestic city of Hyderabad is known for various reasons. Apart from the global culture and the multi diversity it brings in one more thing to cheer about the city these days is its growing theatre culture. With the huge success of the twin city theatre festival held couple of years ago and also the success of theatre festivals organized by prominent theatre groups like Sutradhaar, Rangadhaara and Samahaara, the rapid stride at which this art form is growing is there for everyone to see. A city which is known for its laidback attitude has slowly, but surely been drawing everyone’s attention.

Gone are the days when one would go only to Ravindra Bharati and shell out Rs. 300-500 to watch a play during weekends. The scene has changed over the last five years tremendously. If one pays a visit to ‘Lamakaan’ touted to be the most prominent cultural hub of the hyderabadis, on any given evening, more so, during the weekends, one will find the place to be bustling with activities and the presence of many theatre enthusiasts. One can find discussions about scripts, rehearsals for a play, people enacting on a stage, so on and so forth.

With the new theatre entrants and rising popularity of few other groups like Nishumbitha, Little Theatre, Udaan, Manch, Dramanon etc., the Hyderabadi crowd has plenty of options to choose from.
Although Lamakaan rules the roost as the most preferred place, other new places like Our Sacred Space, Roots and Rock Castle are emerging as new platforms for theatre groups to showcase their talents.
Currently, the theatre groups in the city are a good mix of both, experienced professionals and amateurs. While a few people are bent on taking as their career, there are many others, youngsters especially, who are juggling between their professional lives and pursuing their passion relentlessly after their work hours and during the weekends.

Though the current younger crowd prefers slapstick comedy, one can also see people coming up with thought-provoking plays, which also draw the audience in large numbers. The recent success of women centric plays and social dramas which went on to be good crowd pullers bears a testimony to that. Scripts are generally based on original work or adaptations of prolific writers of Hindi, Marathi and English languages.

All said and done the theatre scene in Hyderabad needs to go a long way. It is still behind in comparison with places like Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai and Delhi where the theater culture is far more established and organized. Although there are number of people who are keen to make a mark in this art form, there is a lot left to be desired. While there are new stories being churned out and plenty of characters being performed on stage lack of finesse in handling technical aspects and lack of knowledge of theatre etiquette are a cause of concern. The biggest and the daunting task for the theatre practioners is to bring crowds to theatre and draw their attention towards watching a play.

It is also important for people to encourage good theatre performances. Just as they flock to multiplexes, shopping malls and cricket stadiums, appreciating and recognizing people who are in pursuit of various art forms will help in a long way.

For all these things to shape up there has to be a place exclusively for theatre. Ravindra Bharati and NIFT charge a bomb to stage a show. So they don’t even exist as an option to most of the theatre groups. Although there are new places coming up, the stage arena is limited to perform only small and medium budget productions .The city requires similar to that of Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai, which as of now still remains elusive. Hope the government comes forward and takes steps in right direction to revive and promote it. As far as the audiences are concerned, if they are purchasing a ticket and watching a play rather than finding different ways to get free passes, it can be the most encouraging thing done to the performers.

But with more and younger people getting into theatre and working towards reviving it passionately, the adherent theatre lovers have a reason to smile. Why not? With lot of production oriented workshops for people of all ages, and special workshops for the children on the rise, the theatre scene in the city looks vibrant and is heading in the right direction. Let us hope the young, talented aficionados grow leaps and bounds and take theatre to a next level. Hopefully in the days to come, Hyderabad Theatre becomes as famous as our Hyderabadi Biryani and Irani chai.