BRICS Theatre Festival 2026 Opens at NSD, New Delhi

The BRICS Theatre Festival 2026 began on 12 October 2026 at the National School of Drama (NSD) in New Delhi. Its theme is 'Shared Stories, Shared Futures', and the three-day festival runs from 12 to 14 October 2026. The Ministry of Culture is the organiser, and the festival is held under India's BRICS Presidency 2026, coming soon after the BRICS Summit in New Delhi. Theatre practitioners, scholars, students and cultural representatives from nine BRICS member and partner countries are taking part.

Who is taking part

The nine participants are India, Thailand, Indonesia, Russia, Iran, Vietnam, South Africa, Kazakhstan and Ethiopia. Russia has sent two theatre groups and India is staging two productions of its own, while the other countries bring work in their own languages and performance idioms. National theatre schools and leading theatre institutions make up the line-up, and the programme ranges across classical, contemporary and experimental forms.

The opening

Union Minister of Culture and Tourism Gajendra Singh Shekhawat was the Chief Guest. He said that while diplomacy lets nations negotiate and economic cooperation helps them prosper, it is culture that lets societies understand one another and build ties across political boundaries. Also present were Vivek Aggarwal, Secretary in the Ministry of Culture; Sudhakar Dalela, Secretary (Economic Relations) in the Ministry of External Affairs and India's BRICS Sherpa for 2026; and Chittaranjan Tripathy, Director of the NSD, along with ambassadors and heads of mission of the participating countries. The opening day's play was Samudra Manthan, written by Asif Ali, with design, direction and music by Chittaranjan Tripathy, staged at the Abhimanch Auditorium on the NSD campus.

Venues and tickets

Performances are spread across New Delhi: the NSD's Abhimanch and Sammukh auditoriums, Kamani Auditorium, LTG Auditorium and Meghdoot Theatre. Tickets are sold through BookMyShow at 200 rupees each. Workshops and discussion sessions are held on the mornings after performances, bringing together directors, cast and crew to talk about artistic vision, performance traditions, acting method and stagecraft.

The presidency behind it

India holds the BRICS Presidency for 2026 under the theme 'Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability', with a people-centric approach. The Culture Track of the presidency gives priority to cultural and creative industries, protection of heritage, and the place of culture in climate resilience and sustainable development. NSD, an autonomous institution under the Ministry of Culture, is the nodal agency for the festival.