Mumbai Pritvi Theater

Shri Prithviraj Kapoor and the Prithvi Theatres.
Kala desh ki seva mein - Art in the service of the nation.

Though the late Prithviraj Kapoor is best remembered for his career in cinema, a career that spanned more than 40 illustrious years, it was the theatre to which he dedicated his life. In 1927 Prithviraj left Edwards College, Peshawar, where he was studying for a degree in law, to pursue a career as an actor. He came to Bombay and joined the Imperial Studio Co. where he spent two days as an extra, and then as fate would have it was selected to play the lead in a silent film 'Cinema Girl' starring Ermelene, the screen goddess of her time.

In 1931 he joined the Grant Anderson Theatrical Company- an English actor-manager's travelling theatre group. Starting as a juvenile lead he went on to do various roles. This was his training ground and was to be the base from which he would set up his own theatre company many years later. In 1944 he established the Prithvi Theatres.

The Prithvi Theatres was a travelling theatre company of 150 dedicated actors, stagehands, cooks, writers and technicians, performing plays throughout the country. The Prithvi Theatres' maiden production was Kalidasa's classic "Shakuntala", after which socio-political plays -- "Deewar" (Wall), "Pathaan" (Pathaan), "Ghaddar" (Traitor), "Aahuthi" (Offering), "Kalaakar" (Painter), "Paisa" (Money) and "Kisaan" (Farmer), were performed all over India and became immensely popular. These plays were written specifically for Prithvi Theatres and Prithviraj played the lead in all the productions.

The Prithvi Theatres was one of the first professionals Hindi theatre groups with a permanent staff, actively developing and nurturing a modern theatre movement which slowly but surely gained momentum. At a time when the country was going through tremendous political turmoil, the Prithvi Theatres toured for 16 years, spreading the conviction Prithviraj had in the dynamic power of theatre to do good.

Prithviraj became enormously successful , and throughout his career, he remained a man courteous and humane, and sympathetic to all. He made no distinction of cast and creed, status or rank, and it was just these values that Prithviraj Kapoor brought to his work in the theatre.

Around this time Prithviraj felt the need for a theatre space which would provide amateur theatre groups with professional facilities. With this in mind he leased out a plot of land in Juhu, Bombay with the hope of some day building a theatre on it. Unfortunately though, this was not to be realised in his lifetime. He succumbed to Hodgkin's disease in 1972 leaving behind a rich cultural legacy and a vision for Indian theatre. A few years after his demise, in 1975 his son Shashi Kapoor and daughter-in-law Jennifer Kapoor decided to buy the land and set up a Trust in Shri Prithviraj Kapoor's memory with the intention of building a theatre to promote the performing arts.

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