Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Festival is an annual theatre

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

 festival held in Hyderabad, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

.

History

Qadir Ali Baig was an eminent theatre personality from Hyderabad. Between 1970 and 1984, Qader Ali was an important figure in the Hyderabad theatre circuit. He formed the New Theatre of Hyderabad (NTH) in 1970 and featured in plays like Sakharam Binder, Adhey Adhoore, Khamosh Adalat Jaari Hai and Kehron Ke Rajhans. His period plays had sets and props that recreated the magnificence of the Mughal

Mughal Empire

The Mughal Empire ,‎ or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...

 and the Asif Jahi eras in plays like Quli Qutb Shah,Tana Shah, Mahboob-e-Deccan and Kohinoor ka Lutera.

Baig's son Mohammed Ali Baig, a producer

Film producer

A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...

-director

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

 himself, heads the Hyderabad-based Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Foundation. In 2005, Mohammed Ali felt the need to revive the theatre culture in Hyderabad. Together with arts personalities like dancer Vani Ganapathy, actors such as Rohini Hattangadi

Rohini Hattangadi

Rohini Hattangadi is an Indian actress of film, theatre and television. She has won two Filmfare Awards, one National Film Award, and is the only Indian actress to win the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance as Kasturba Gandhi in Gandhi...

, Suhasini Mani Ratnam

Suhasini Mani Ratnam

Suhasini Maniratnam is an Indian actress. She made her film debut in 1980 with the Tamil film Nenjathai Killathe for which she won the Best Actress award. Suhasini has won a National Film Award for Best Actress for Sindhu Bhairavi in 1986...

 and Urmila Matondkar

Urmila Matondkar

Urmila Matondkar is an Indian film actress.Matondkar, who made her screen debut as a child artist in the 1980 film Kalyug, debuted as an adult in Narasimha...

, lyricist Javed Akhtar

Javed Akhtar

Javed Akhtar is a poet, lyricist and scriptwriter from India. Some of his most successful work was done in the late 1970s and 1980s with Salim Khan as half of the script-writing duo credited as Salim-Javed...

 and director M. S. Sathyu

M. S. Sathyu

Mysore Shrinivas Sathyu is a leading film director, stage designer and art director from India. His film Garam Hawa is a film on the partition of India. He is a recipient of the Padma Shri in 1975.-Early life:Sathyu conducted his schooling and higher education at Mysore and Bangalore...

, Mohammed Ali planned a series of plays to its effect.

Plays such as Aparajita directed by Jayadev Hattangadi and featuring Rohini Hattangadi were performed in 2005. In the following year, a play on Abdullah Qutb Shah

Abdullah Qutb Shah

Abdullah Qutb Shah was the seventh ruler of the kingdom of Golconda in southern India under the Qutb Shahi dynasty. He ruled from 1625 to 1672....

's courtesan Taramati

Taramati Baradari

Taramati Baradari was a sarai as part of Ibrahim Bagh, a Persian style garden built during the reign of Ibrahim Quli Qutub Shah, the second Sultan of Golconda. The Baradari was constructed on the banks of the Musi river. Today, the region comes under the city limits of Hyderabad, India...

was showcased by the foundation. The media spoke highly about this play:

Through the evening, the breathtaking historic venue stole the show. Dr. M.S. Sathyu's makeshift stages and clever lighting definitely helped. Veteran actress Rashmi Seth as Hayat Bakshi Begum was easily the best of the actors. She made her crisp, short part seem like a cakewalk ... With names like Mohammad Ali Baig (director), music (Kaarthik Ilayaraja) and Ashok Lal (research) coming together, it could have been much more than just a love story.