A quarter‑century
of making theatre.
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.
Prakasam is registered as a trust.
P D Sathish Chandra and a small group of friends — drawn from the founding cohort of Ranga Shankara and Bangalore Little Theatre — register Pradarshana Kalaa Samsthe. The first plays are mounted in borrowed halls across south Bengaluru.
The first festival circuit.
A run of plays — including Bembidada Bhootha and Ammavra Ganda — travels to festivals across Karnataka. The trust begins to be recognised by the wider Kannada 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.
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.
Theatre, livestreamed.
When the pandemic closes physical venues, Prakasam moves to streamed performances. Caronammana Krupe — a sharp pandemic‑era satire — premieres online.
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.
“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 →