With over 300 workshops, 200 plus plays and a new wave of young actors, Samahaara turned a quiet city into a theatre hotspot
When Rathna Shekar Reddy and Anjali Parvati Koda founded Samahaara in 2004, there wasn’t much of a theatre scene in Hyderabad. “We started with a simple dream — to make theatre accessible, exciting, and viable,” says Reddy. “There were hardly any consistent theatre activities back then.”
Fast-forward two decades, and Samahaara is a name you can’t miss on the city’s cultural map. With over 300 acting and theatre workshops under their belt, they’ve trained everyone from nervous first-timers to professionals now seen in films, on OTT platforms and major stage productions. Over 200 of them — span English, Hindi, Telugu and even Deccani Urdu. Hard-hitting dramas, absurd comedies, experimental and issue-based plays, Samahaara has tackled it all. But perhaps their biggest win is making theatre ‘cool’ for young people. “We saw a huge energy coming from students and fresh graduates,” Reddy recalls. “That’s how festivals like the Hyderabad Theatre Festival and the Samahaara Theatre Festival came to life.” These events created a buzz, giving amateur actors a real stage, complete with lights, mentors and full audiences.
They’ve also gone global. Samahaara has collaborated with over 20 directors from countries like Romania, the UK, the US, and Iran. “Every director brought a new perspective,” says Anjali. “It helped widen not just our understanding, but that of our actors and audiences too.”
