Orchestrating theatre
from 2001.
Prakasam — Pradarshana Kalaa Samsthe — is a registered NGO founded in Bengaluru in 2001 with one stubborn aim: to keep Kannada performing arts vital, accessible, and made well.
We promote performing arts, we nurture young talent, and we hold the door open for anyone willing to do the work.
The need for the trust was the need we saw most plainly around us: young performing artists with talent and no platform to grow it.
Over the years, our initiatives — KH Kala Soudha, Rangaayama, SwaRaaGa Sanje, the Kalaa Krushi banner — have built a small but loyal ecosystem. We have staged more than thirty productions, run festivals and workshops, mentored interns who have gone on to film and television, and held the line on a kind of theatre that respects both its audience and its tradition.
Performing arts are the mirror of our values and our way of life. To protect them is to protect a particular way of being in the world. We intend to keep at it.
“The need for the trust was the urge to support young performing artists who do not have any support to nurture and encourage their talents.”
A working timeline.
The trust's life in the milestones that shaped it — not exhaustive, but the beats that matter.
Where it began.
A few friends come together to start doing theatre — no organisation yet, just passion paralleled with dreams to do stand‑out, unique productions. P D Sathish Chandra and a small group of friends start working with different teams in varied departments, gathering knowledge and know‑how. Realising the need to start something new, they begin play productions under the existing banner of Fourth Corner.
Full‑fledged amateur theatre.
The very first production we stage for Ranga Shankara is Ammora Ganda and Keetale. Keetale is the first ever Kannada stand‑up to hit the stage in a very nascent stand‑up scene of Bangalore. Drawn from the founding cohort of Ranga Shankara and Bangalore Little Theatre, the first plays are mounted in borrowed halls across south Bengaluru.
The first festival circuit.
A run of plays travels to festivals across Karnataka. The trust begins to be recognised by the wider Kannada theatre community. Support to other groups for their productions is welcomed wholeheartedly by the theatre community.
KH Kala Soudha — a home.
KH Kala Soudha, a dedicated performing‑arts venue in Hanumanthanagar, opens with PD as Director and a board including Sihi Kahi Chandru and Mandhya Ramesh. Prakasam finds a home stage. Prakasam gets registered as a performing‑arts NGO and swings into action.
The Kalaa Krushi banner.
Kalaa Krushi — "the agriculture of culture" — becomes the umbrella under which all productions, festivals, and outreach work are organised.
Rangaayama begins.
Rangaayama, an annual festival of Kannada plays, runs for the first time. Further editions follow over the next decade.
End of an era.
Prakasam lets go of Kala Soudha after running it successfully for 9 years and enabling more than 3,000 stagings in the prestigious venue.
Theatre, livestreamed.
When the pandemic closes physical venues, Prakasam moves to streamed performances. Caronammana Krupe — a sharp pandemic‑era satire — premieres online. We also create the first ever video book, Home Theatre, where more than 100 artists read two books and keep corona‑distressed audiences entertained.
Twenty‑five years on.
Kathakhanda, Sathya Nithya, and Isila premiere within twelve months. The trust formalises its training arm and re‑launches its alumni network. Silver Jubilee celebrations of all performing arts in the Prakasam 25 festival.
“Theatre,” he says, “is the work I keep returning to.”
PD has acted in over fifty plays — Kannada, English, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali — and across film, television, and radio. But theatre, he insists, is his first love.
He directed seven plays for Prakasam in the trust's first decade and continues to mentor the directing team. Best known to wider audiences from Kannada television, PD's body of stage work is what he hopes will outlast the screen credits.
More about PD →