Bharat RangMahotsav ,Bengalore – 2025
Bharat Rang Mahotsav – Bengaluru 2025 marked an important national milestone in Kalabhi's theatrical journey. Organised by the National School of Drama (NSD), Bharat Rang Mahotsav is one of India's most significant international theatre festivals. The 2025 edition formed part of the festival's 25-year milestone, bringing together theatre practitioners and productions from across India and several other countries.
The 2025 edition of Bharat Rang Mahotsav was held over twenty days, from 28 January to 16 February 2025, with programmes organised across several Indian cities as well as Kathmandu, Nepal, and Colombo, Sri Lanka. The festival featured more than two hundred productions and participation from nine countries. It was organised under the theme “Ek Rang, Shreshth Rang – One Expression, Supreme Creation,” celebrating the diversity and shared spirit of theatrical expression.
Bengaluru was one of the major satellite locations of the festival, with programmes held from 1 to 8 February 2025. The Bengaluru chapter was organised by the National School of Drama in collaboration with the Karnataka Nataka Academy, bringing a range of theatrical productions and allied cultural activities to the city.
As part of this prestigious national theatre festival, Kalabhi Theatre, Karnataka, was officially selected to present A Friend Beyond the Fence, directed by renowned theatre practitioner and puppeteer Shravan Heggodu. The production appears in the official BRM 2025 list of selected plays as “A Friend Beyond the Fence – Director: Shravan Heggodu – Group: Kalabhi Theatre, Karnataka.”
The presentation was particularly significant for Kalabhi because it brought one of its major theatrical productions to the platform of one of India's largest and most prestigious theatre festivals. It provided an opportunity for Kalabhi's artistic work to engage with a wider national audience of theatre practitioners, artists and theatre enthusiasts.
The scale of Bharat Rang Mahotsav 2025 gave this participation an even wider context. The festival brought together diverse theatrical languages, artistic traditions and contemporary performance practices from India and abroad. NSD's programme for the 2025 edition also expanded the festival's emphasis on inclusivity, creating space for artistic participation by children, senior citizens, transgender persons, sex workers and other underrepresented communities.
For A Friend Beyond the Fence, the selection and presentation at Bharat Rang Mahotsav represented another important stage in the production's journey. The work, which combines large-scale visual imagination with puppetry and theatrical performance, found a place within a national festival that brought together a wide range of theatrical voices from across India and the world.
Bharat Rang Mahotsav – Bengaluru 2025 therefore stands as an important chapter in Kalabhi's national theatre journey. The presentation of A Friend Beyond the Fence marked a moment when Kalabhi's work travelled beyond its immediate regional context and entered one of India's most significant national theatre platforms.
From its beginnings as a collective engaged in local and regional cultural activity to presenting a major production at a nationally recognised theatre festival, this participation represents an important milestone in Kalabhi's continuing journey. Bharat Rang Mahotsav – Bengaluru 2025 remains a significant national recognition and a memorable chapter in the festival journey of A Friend Beyond the Fence.
