For the past three months, the rehearsal space of Dr BR Ambedkar Open University in Hyderabad has been home to the 15-member cast and crew of Janpadam Modern Traveling Theater Repertory. they are preparing BluehavenI, a new Telugu play which was staged at Rabindra Bharathi.
“Nilaveni is unique because it explores the conflict between unconditional love and physical desire, says director Srinivas Danchanala. “It is also a post-modern work that questions traditional notions of a man’s attitude towards a woman while giving voice to marginalized and neglected communities through political inquiry.”
The writing is credited to both the poet, playwright, actor, critic, stage designer and director Srinivas Danchanala and the late playwright Gollapudi Maruthi Rao. Srinivas points out that while Nelaveni An original political drama, it takes inspiration from one of Gollapudi’s works.
He says, “In his play, Gollapudi Garu wrote about blind people living together. I borrowed that central idea, so I thought it would be right to give him credit as well.”
four decades and more
Srinivas Denchanala discusses a scene. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
For over four decades, Srinivas has used theater as a voice for the voiceless. The 64 productions staged by his troupe reflect a consistent approach: nurturing indigenous talent, drawing from the local imagination and creating art rooted in the lived experiences of communities often left out of the mainstream.
His NGO, Janapadam, which means countryside in Telugu, has spent the last 42 years working at the grassroots level in theatre, folklore, culture and literature. Registered as a social and cultural society, its performances have performed in towns, villages and tribal areas of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, apart from participating in national and international theater festivals.
“Through our work with marginalized castes, communities and groups, we use modern theater to encourage people to question social, economic, cultural, environmental and gender oppression,” says Srinivas.
growing up
Artists of ‘Neelaveni’ during rehearsal. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Hailing from an artisan community in Krishnapuram, Khammam district of Telangana, Srinivas’s fascination for theater continued even after intermediate, when he started performing in leftist plays and parishat natakalu – Productions created primarily for theater festivals and competitions.
In 1989, when the Sangeet Natak Akademi organized a contemporary theater festival in Hyderabad. Srinivas’s production was the only selected Telugu play, sharing the stage with the works of 12 eminent theater artists including Habib Tanvir and Girish Karnad.
“This was a turning point,” he recalls. “For the first time, I experienced modern Indian theater as a synthesis of Western realism and indigenous performance traditions.”
postmodern theme
Inclusion of Yakshagana in the drama. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Srinivas describes his work as “political artistic theatre”, where music, choreography, masks, lighting and location are integral to the storytelling as well as the dialogue. “Just as a painter uses colours, I use indigenous forms and traditions as my performance vocabulary,” he says. “But at its core, my theater engages with modern and post-modern ideas and questions.”
Creating grassroots theater has never been easy, especially with limited resources and infrastructure. Still, Srinivas continues.
“Every time I start a new play, I think about the struggles and feel like stopping,” he says. “But I never do that. I start everything again because I come from the grassroots myself. My aim is to bridge the rural-urban divide and connect marginalized and indigenous communities with opportunities through theatre.”
published – July 17, 2026 08:54 am IST