New Delhi: The National School of Drama (NSD) will host the 25th edition of Bharat Rang Mahotsav (BRM) 2026 from January 27 to February 20, scaling up the festival into what it calls its most expansive and inclusive edition yet.
Often billed as the world’s largest international theatre festival, BRM 2026 will unfold across 40 locations in India, with the lineup also promising at least one production from a country in each of the seven continents, underlining the festival’s growing global footprint.
This year’s programme features 277 Indian productions – including 136 selected plays and invited works – alongside 12 international productions. In a striking indicator of its linguistic sweep, NSD said performances will span 228 Indian and foreign languages and dialects, reinforcing BRM’s reputation for scale and diversity.
The selected productions were chosen after NSD screened 817 national and 34 international applications. The festival will also include 19 university productions and 14 local productions across various centres, according to an official statement.
Calling the edition a landmark for accessibility, Prof. Bharat Gupt, Vice Chairman of NSD, said the festival reflects the “democratisation and universalisation of theatre”, adding that it brings together a wide range of languages, genres, and theatrical styles from different communities and age groups.
In a major push beyond traditional hubs, NSD has added several new venues for the first time, including Ladakh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu, Aizawl (Mizoram), Tura (Meghalaya), Nagaon (Assam), Mandi (Himachal Pradesh), and Rohtak (Haryana).
NSD Director Chittaranjan Tripathy described the festival as a “Mahakumbh of theatre”, positioning it as an all-inclusive platform where regions, aesthetics, and ideologies meet through multiple forms of performance. He said BRM’s expansion into far-flung regions is aimed at taking theatre to places where such opportunities remain limited, while also giving space to underrepresented languages with strong oral and literary traditions.
NSD said BRM 2026 is being supported through partnerships with several Indian and international cultural and academic institutions. Domestic collaborators include the Maithili–Bhojpuri Academy, Hindi Academy, Garhwali–Kumaoni–Jaunsari Academy, and the Urdu Academy (Government of NCT of Delhi).
International partners include the National Polish Theatre Academy (Warsaw), National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts (Madrid) and the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts – GITIS (Moscow), apart from support from various Indian states and cultural bodies.
