Hindi theatre

Hindi theatre primarily refers to theatre performed in the Hindi language, including dialects such as Khari boli and Hindustani. Hindi theatre is produced mainly in North India, and some parts of West India and Central India, which include Mumbai and Bhopal. Hindi theatre has its roots in the traditional folk theatre of North India, like Ram lila and Raslila, and also influenced by distant Sanskrit drama. Starting with Bhartendu Harishchandra in the late 19th century and subsequent playwrights like Jaishankar Prasad, Mohan Rakesh, Hindi theatre came of age in the 1940s and 50s, when IPTA movement created a new brand of theatre practitioners in Hindi speaking areas, especially with IPTA Mumbai, Prithvi Theatres of thespian Prithviraj Kapoor, and theatre artiste Habib Tanvir, paving way for next generation of artists who came out once National School of Drama, Delhi started functioning in 1959.

The advent of Mughal empire meant the lasting and definite end of Sanskrit as everyday language and along with it theatre traditions, though it also gave birth to a synergistic traditions of Urdu and Hindustani languages, that developed in the aftermath of a fast amalgamating diverse cultures. Traditional folk theatre which included Ramlila, Raslila and nautanki had evolved despite the absence of royal patronage and where it was present, as in the case Ramlila of Kashi Kingdom, in Ramnagar, Varanasi, it evolved into a highly evolved form, with shifting locations. Elsewhere in Awadh, Wajid Ali Shah had been experimenting forms like thumri and stage style known as rahasa, it achieved a definite style in a play believed to be commissioned by him, Inder Sabha, an Urdu play by Agha Hasan Amanat, first staged in 1853.

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