The Ministry of Culture will organise the BRICS Theatre Festival 2026 from October 12 to 14 in New Delhi as part of India’s BRICS Presidency 2026.
The three-day festival, themed “Shared Stories, Shared Futures”, will bring together more than 100 theatre practitioners, scholars, students and cultural representatives from nine BRICS member and partner countries.
Addressing the media, Culture Ministry Secretary Vivek Aggarwal said the festival is an important cultural engagement under India’s BRICS Presidency and will seek to strengthen people-to-people ties through theatre.
Aggarwal said the festival builds on the Bhopal Declaration adopted at the BRICS Culture Ministers’ Meeting in August 2026, which called for greater cultural cooperation, people-to-people exchanges and stronger networks among artists and cultural practitioners. India had also proposed a voluntary Artist Registry to facilitate such exchanges.
The festival will carry forward this vision through theatrical performances and professional interactions among practitioners from BRICS countries, he said.
The importance of the initiative was also reflected in the BRICS Leaders’ Declaration, which welcomed the Bhopal Declaration and noted initiatives aimed at strengthening cultural cooperation, cultural exchanges and people-to-people ties.
The festival will feature participants from India, Thailand, Indonesia, Russia, Vietnam, Iran, South Africa, Kazakhstan and Ethiopia. India will present two theatre productions, while participating countries will showcase works reflecting their diverse languages, theatrical traditions and contemporary creative expressions. Russia will be represented by two theatre groups.
The festival will be inaugurated at the National School of Drama (NSD) on October 12. Performances will be held at several venues across New Delhi, including the NSD’s Abhimanch and Sammukh auditoriums, Kamani Auditorium, LTG Auditorium and Meghdoot Theatre.
The programme will feature classical, contemporary and experimental forms of theatre. Interactive workshops and discussions involving directors, artistes and production teams will provide a platform for exchanges on artistic vision, performance traditions, acting methodologies, stagecraft and technical design.
The NSD, an autonomous institution under the Ministry of Culture, will serve as the nodal agency for organising the festival.
The BRICS Theatre Festival 2026 aims to strengthen cultural cooperation and people-to-people ties among BRICS countries by bringing artistes, theatre practitioners and audiences together on a common artistic platform.
