About
To promote professional theatre - primarily Hindi theatre - by providing an intimate, accessible home for the performing arts.
Prithvi Theatre is an intimate ~200-seat venue in Juhu, Mumbai, run by the Shri Prithviraj Kapoor Memorial Trust & Research Foundation. Since 1978 it has been the spiritual home of modern Hindi theatre - staging year-round productions, hosting the annual Prithvi Theatre Festival, running workshops and children's programming, and nurturing emerging talent. Its open-air café is a Mumbai cultural landmark in its own right.
Prithvi grew from Prithviraj Kapoor's dream of a permanent home for his 1944 travelling company. After his death, Shashi and Jennifer Kapoor built the intimate octagonal-stage theatre that opened in 1978 - a space so acoustically alive that a whisper carries to the back row.
Under Sanjna Kapoor it became a national institution: the Prithvi Festival drew the country's best theatre, its stage launched countless careers, and its café became the informal headquarters of Mumbai's theatre and film world. For nearly five decades it has been, in spirit and practice, the cradle of contemporary Indian theatre.
Visit & Access
Stages daily theatre productions and the annual Prithvi Festival; the open-air café is open to all.
Founding & Leadership
Prithvi Theatre was inaugurated on 5 November 1978 by actors Shashi Kapoor and his wife Jennifer (Kendal) Kapoor, in memory of Prithviraj Kapoor - the Kapoor family patriarch who had founded the travelling 'Prithvi Theatres' company in 1944. Jennifer Kapoor oversaw the building of the intimate, octagonal-stage venue (designed by architect Ved Segan) and ran it until her death in 1984; their daughter Sanjna Kapoor later built it into a national theatre institution.
Run by the Shri Prithviraj Kapoor Memorial Trust & Research Foundation, established 1975, with Kapoor family trustees and a small team.
Leadership & Trustees
Initiatives & Portfolio
Daily productions across Hindi, English and regional theatre in an intimate 200-seat space.
An annual festival showcasing the best of Indian and international theatre.
Theatre workshops and a summer children's programme nurturing new talent.
The open-air café - an iconic gathering place for Mumbai's theatre and film community.
Impact & Metrics
Partnerships & Network
Funders & patrons
Credentials & Compliance
CSR-eligible · Schedule VII(v) - art & culture
A registered charitable trust eligible for CSR support under Schedule VII(v); its accessible, talent-nurturing model makes it a high-affinity arts-funding partner.
Recognition
The cradle of modern Hindi theatre; among India's most beloved and influential performing-arts venues.
[Atlas Assessment] Prithvi Theatre is the emotional and practical heart of Mumbai theatre. Its intimate stage and famous café have, for nearly five decades, been where Indian actors and directors are made - a launchpad for the stage and, through it, for Indian cinema. Few small venues anywhere have exerted such an outsized influence on a national theatre culture.
Prithvi scores modestly on reach - it is a single 200-seat room - but high on ecosystem influence and impact, because what happens in that room ripples across Indian theatre and film. As a family trust it is well-loved and durable; its honest questions are sustainability of an intimate non-profit venue in expensive Mumbai and the long-term institutionalisation of the Kapoor stewardship. For a funder, it is a beloved, high-trust, high-affinity partner.