Nandikar`s National Theatre Festival was started in 1984. It is arranged annually in Kolkata, in the Indian state of West Bengal, between 16 and 25 December. Initiated and organized, as the name suggest, by the theatre group Nandikar. The festival is held at the Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata.

The stated twin objective for the festival is to facilitate cultural integration in India and providing a forum for exchange of notes among theatre workers from different parts of the country. However, the festival was initially a part of Nandikar`s silver jubilee, but due to the good reception the group decided to turn it into an annual event.

The group is a premier Indian theatre group with its headquarters in Kolkata, West Bengal. Over the last 50 years we have played a proactive role in spreading theatrical activities in India through our performances primarily under the guidance of first Ajitesh Bandyopadhyay and then Rudraprasad Sengupta. Besides doing theatre on stage Nandikar is also into spreading theatre amongst the children and the youth. We regularly work with different schools, colleges, street children, marginalised children and corporate houses. The annual Nandikar National Theatre Festival is the biggest theatre carnival of Kolkata and one of the largest in the country as well. The festival provides a platform for the stalwarts and amateurs alike for not just participants from all over India, but also from the international arena. We regularly perform on invitation by international theatre organizations of UK, Canada, USA, Sweden, Germany, Bangladesh and many other countries. Most of the contents are Bengali plays.

Over the years Nandikar has become a symbol of an institution that works relentlessly for honest, thought-provoking, meaningful theatre. Most of our plays have achieved critical and mass acclaim in India and abroad. Among our current members Rudraprasad Sengupta and Swatilekha Sengupta are winners of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the highest Indian recognition given to practicing artists. With this rich cultural heritage in our DNA, we are always eager to find newer space for theatre in our community life. Old as a banyan tree, we still continuously strive to remain fresh as a seedling.

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