Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Foundation

To revive and promote meaningful theatre in Hyderabad and to take the city's and India's heritage centre-stage globally.

The Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Foundation was founded in Hyderabad in 2005 by the actor-director-playwright Mohammad Ali Baig, together with his mother Begum Razia Baig, as a tribute to his father, the theatre doyen Qadir Ali Baig. The Foundation revives and promotes meaningful theatre through its own productions and presentations, a Global Theatre Initiative, a dedicated Heritage Theatre effort, a Celebrating Theatre workshop and talks series, and monthly Theatre Weekends. It is credited with taking Hyderabadi theatre to a global stage with productions such as Quli: Dilon ka Shahzaada, Raat Phoolon ki, Savaan-e-Hayat and 1857: Turrebaz Khan, and it presents the annual Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Festival, one of the most important theatre assemblies in the subcontinent.

Qadir Ali Baig had been a defining figure of Hyderabad theatre between 1970 and 1984, staging lavish period plays that recreated the Mughal and Asaf Jahi eras. In 2005 his son Mohammad Ali Baig founded the Foundation in his memory to revive a flagging theatre culture in the city, going on to create heritage-theatre productions that toured nationally and internationally. Mohammad Ali Baig, who received the Padma Shri in 2014, heads the Foundation as President and Curator-Director alongside his mother Begum Razia Baig as Chairperson, with the eminent filmmaker and theatre director M. S. Sathyu as National Director and a board including Vani Ganapathy, Ram Gopal Bajaj, Suhasini Maniratnam and Kadir Zaman. The Foundation's annual festival has grown into a major multi-lingual, multi-venue event.