Ranga Shankara

Theatre for everyone, theatre every day: to provide a world-class, affordable and inclusive home for theatre in Bengaluru.

Ranga Shankara is one of India's finest and best-loved theatres, located in J. P. Nagar in south Bengaluru and dedicated exclusively to the performing arts. Opened on 28 October 2004, it was envisioned by the actor Arundhati Nag in memory of her late husband, the celebrated Kannada actor-director Shankar Nag, and is run by the Sanket Trust. With a 320-seat auditorium of world-class acoustics and technical facilities offered to troupes at highly affordable rates, and a stage that hosts performances almost every day of the year, it has become one of India's nerve centres of theatre under the motto Theatre for Everyone, Theatre Every Day.

Shankar Nag dreamed of a vibrant, affordable, inclusive theatre for Bengaluru, but died in a road accident in 1990 before it could be built. His wife Arundhati Nag, with the Sanket Trust founded in 1992 by theatre lovers who had worked with the Nags, and with support ranging from five-rupee gifts from ordinary theatre lovers to large sums from industrialists, realised the dream. The government allotted land at J. P. Nagar in 1994, construction began in 2001 to a design by architect Sharukh Mistry, and Ranga Shankara opened in 2004. The playwright Girish Karnad served as chairman of the Sanket Trust, and the theatre hosts the annual Ranga Shankara Theatre Festival and confers the Shankar Nag Theatre Award on young theatre-makers.