NEW DELHI: The National School of Drama (NSD) will organise the Bharat Rang Mahotsav (BRM) 2026, the country’s premier theatre festival, from January 27 to February 20, 2026, across 40 locations nationwide, bringing together productions from all seven continents. The festival will feature a total of 289 productions, including 277 Indian performances comprising selected plays and invited shows, along with 12 international productions.
Productions by transgender communities, sex workers, senior citizens and other underrepresented groups will be showcased for the first time, marking a significant step towards inclusivity in Indian theatre. The festival will also commemorate eminent historical figures such as Bhagwan Birsa Munda, Lok Mata Ahilya Bai and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, while paying tribute to legendary theatre personalities Ratan Thiyam, Daya Prakash Sinha, Bansi Kaul and Alok Chatterjee.
A special seminar honouring theatre doyen Ebrahim Alkazi will be organised at the NSD campus in the capital. Additionally, a unique theatrical performance written and performed by a cancer survivor and NSD alumnus will be staged. The selected plays emerged from a rigorous screening process involving 817 national and 34 international applications. The festival will also feature 19 university productions and 14 local productions across various centres.
Vice Chairman of NSD, Prof Bharat Gupt, said, “Bharat Rang Mahotsav 2026 stands as an epitome of the democratisation and universalisation of theatre—not only in intent but also in scale. The festival reflects India’s ethos of a shared creative continuum through the inclusion of diverse languages, genres and theatrical expressions from different communities.”