Announcements & Events
About Us
Founded in 1949 by a small band of enthusiasts in the little village of Heggodu, Karnataka. Ninasam has, over these five decades, evolved into a many-winged cultural institution that has won wide recognition. It has been acclaimed as a unique experiment in fusing culture and activism, art practice and social commitment, individual creativity, and collective responsibility. Originally begun as an amateur theatre group it has branched off in several directions and now enfolds a variety of sub-institutions and projects which are engaged in multifaceted activities. Its exploration of a new synthesis of formal and non-formal modes of arts education has been seen as a refreshing attempt at revivifying the vital links between the arts and the community. This endeavor of Ninasam to be a bridge between the microcosm of rural Karnataka and the macrocosm of the world at large has brought it many honors, one of the highest of which has been the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Creative Arts, Communication, and Journalism, conferred on its co-founder and guiding spirit, Late. K.V. Subbanna, in 1991.
Our Projects
Ninasam Theatre institute
Begun in 1980 and recognized by the State Govt. of Karnataka, the institute offers a 10-month diploma certificate course in theatre arts which is roughly modelled on the three-year Bachelor’s Course offered by the National School of Drama, New Delhi. With an intake of about 15 students every year, the institute has so far turned out more than 500 trainees, a large majority of whom have engaged themselves full-time or part-time in Kannada theatre or other allied fields like journalism, socio-cultural activism, primary education, and now in the emerging field of television.
Ninasam Tirugata
Started in 1985, and composed mainly of the alumni of the Ninasam Theatre Institute, this is a wandering theatre troupe which takes 3 new productions to different parts of Karnataka every year. It has so far performed at more than 250 centers, most of the rural/semi-urban, and put up around 3,000 shows over these 23 years, reaching a total audience of about 19,00,000, a feat unmatched in the annals of Indian Theatre. With its judicious selection of plays and production styles, it has taken Indian as well as Western classics, old as well as modern masterworks to an unparalleled variety of audiences all over its home state.
Ninasam Kalegala Sangada Matukate
Ninasam organizes ‘Talking with Literature and the Arts 2024’, a different version of the Culture Course that has been annually held at Ninasam for the last two decades and more.
The five-day event, between the 2nd and 6th of October 2024, will be different from the earlier Culture Course in various ways. There will be no seminars or panel discussions on a given topic. Instead, there will be presentations and discussions about texts of different kinds—literature, theatre, music, folklore, visual arts, cinema etc. The day-program is for the registered participants and guests, however the evening theatre festival that includes Ninasam and Tirugata Plays along with invited performances will be open for the public.
Ninasam – Sanchi Documentation Project
Karnataka has had a long history in theatre. However, there has not been much systematic audio-visual documentation of plays. Ninasam decided to partner with Sanchi Foundation, a not for profit organization working for the documentation of audio-visual heritage based in Bangalore, for a documentation project. Three productions of 2015 by Ninasam were recorded in a multi-camera setup and edited to state of the art audio-visual standards. Sanchi also added a value addition by having various features around it. The documentation included the director’s commentary, interpretation of the text and a documentary on Ninasam and its heritage. English subtitles were present in the entire documentation. These features reach out to a large audience.