1944: Prithvi Theatres, a repertory theatre company was started by Bollywood actor and filmmaker Prithviraj Kapoor to stage plays addressing the concerns of the times, such as the India-Pakistan partition, Hindu-Muslim harmony and feudal hierarchy, in different parts in India.
1960: Prithvi Theatres shuts down as Kapoor can longer work as an actor in films to fund the company as he has cancer.
1962: Kapoor leases two plots of land for 10 years in Juhu, Mumbai, with the dream of building a theatre. The bare-bones structure that he was able to create is never used. He did use the cottage he built on the second piece of leased land.
1972: Kapoor dies. The lease on the land comes to an end.
1974: Shashi Kapoor, Kapoor’s youngest son, with his wife, actress Jennifer Kendal, decides to fulfil his father’s dream. He buys the land leased by Kapoor and decides to build a non-profit, affordable theatre facility accessible to new and established artists.
1978: Prithvi Theatre receives a resounding inauguration. Kendal is in charge.
1983: After shows every day from Tuesday to Sunday for five years, Kendal puts together the first Prithvi Theatre festival that explores and celebrates the diversity of theatre with performances by local, national and international theatre groups. It was planned as an annual event.
1984: Kendal dies of cancer. Her son, actor Kunal Kapoor, takes over as trustee.
1985: The second Prithvi Theatre Festival is held in February 1985, coinciding with Kendal’s birth anniversary, in lieu of the 1984 festival. Another festival was held again in November. 24 festivals are held over 38 years. Tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain, of whom Kendal was a big fan, performed on her birthday, February 28 during the festival, along with santoor exponent Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. Hussain continues to perform every year on this date at Prithvi Theatre.
1990s: Shashi and Kendal’s daughter Sanjana Kapoor joins her brother Kunal in the running of the theatre and its activities. Over the years she adds a host of activities and workshops, Prithvi Players and Little Prithvi Players (theatre for children) to the theatre’s repertoire, which are now regular features.
1995: The Indian Post issues a commemorative stamp to celebrate the golden jubilee year of the founding of Prithvi Theatres by Prithviraj Kapoor.
2006: The Prithvi Theatre festival this year celebrated Kapoor’s birth centenary with the theme based on Prithvi Theatres’ motto kala desh ki seva mein [art in the service of the nation] and had performances by theatre groups across India that dealt with contemporary socio-political issues in their work.
2016: Prithvi Theatre Festival is held for the first time outside India with a five-day event in Dubai.
SPEAKING IN NUMBERS
2,662 is the number of shows Prithvi Theatres held in 5,982 days in 112 towns
643 is the number of shows held in 290 days, Tuesday to Sunday, last year alone at Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai.
