Revisiting Childhood

Chief Guest NK Sinha, Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Govt of India inaugurated the theatre festival in presence of eminent theatre and film actors Manoj Joshi and Mukesh Tiwari, Prof Waman Kendre, Director of NSD, Arjun Deo Charan, Vice Chairman, NSD Society and Prof Abdul Latif Khatana, Chief, Theatre-in-Education, NSD.

Five professional groups from Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat and Delhi and schools from Delhi-NCR, came together to present ‘Bal-Vrind’ – a musical dance performance, under the direction of Dr Laique Hussain to kick-start the gala event. The festival is a reputed theatre experience focusing the children, representing various regions and languages from across the country and beyond. 

NK Sinha, Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Govt of India said, “I wish Jashne Bachpan keeps growing every year so that more kids can be a part of it. I would like to thank all the children for making this festival more joyous and successful.”

This year’s Jashne Bachpan theatre festival will showcase work of some of most eminent as well as emerging theatre directors and established theatre groups enacting plays (with and for children) with full-fledged productions and will be on till November 25, 2016. Rechristened as Jashne Bachpan-International Children Theatre Festival, for the first time the festival will have international participation and will feature 27 productions, including seven productions from foreign countries like Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Turkey, Israel, France and Switzerland.

Manoj Joshi, eminent film & theatre personality said, “In every school theatre should be taught because kids who are into theatre are confident enough to get into anything and not just only theatre. Through Jashne Bachpan all the theatre experts of the country should be connected and theatre should be made compulsory in education.”

As with the previous editions, the National School of Drama campus will be converted into a veritable kids mela for this 12 day theatre carnival, as thousands of kids are expected to be a part of the festival. The festival was started in 1998 by Sanskar Rang Toli (T.I.E Co.), NSD in order to contribute to the growth and development of children’s theatre across the country, and has now come to be regarded as one of the largest and most important theatre festivals in India for Children.