Right from the very moment of its conception in 1978, the Prithvi Theatre, situated in Bombay, has been committed to the development of theatre in India. The 200-seat theatre was initially built to help develop a professional (primarily Hindi) theatre. Over the years Prithvi Theatre has consistently broadened and evolved its concept of what the development of theatre might mean. The various projects it has taken up, supported and managed as a consequence reflect this constant desire to learn and grow and contribute to theatre in India.

Prithvi Theatre is primarily a theatre venue, yet, a number of projects supported by Prithvi have little to do with the usual agenda of a theatre venue and far more to do with agendas for growth both of the theatre and in the theatre.

Currently, Prithvi Theatre hosts over 400 performances a year, by over 50 groups, at a subsidised theatre rent with fully professional techincial and performing facilities. Dedicated to encouraging professional theatre, Prithvi Theatre has made a conscious decision to keep its theatre rent down. Prithvi has come up with a scaled theatre rent and ticket rate to enable performing groups to survive economically as well as develop an audience. Controlled ticket pricing has helped to develop an audience. The average audience per show is 80% of our capacity, which is approximately 65,000 audience per year.

The Prithvi Festivals have emerged as an extension of this process, an attempt to assess the situation of theatre in Mumbai, India or the world today so that we may better respond to the needs, gaps, and sometimes alarming holes in the entire framework of theatre in our country. The Prithvi Festival increasingly marks a clear realisation that neither can we, nor do we, want to traverse this path alone; that the future of theatre in India lies in the hands of all of us in this field; and that it is only collectively that we can make a real, much needed, difference.

To allow for the above to take place, we have been lucky to have similar thinking corporate partnerships, and ocassional suport from foundations and government