Swatantra Theaters

Being over by Deccan Hennur Cross, Swatantra Theaters feels like its own little world tucked away from the main chaos. It’s an old building, and you can tell by the way the floorboards creak when you walk across the stage. We spend a lot of our time just maintaining the place, fixing a broken seat here or a leaky pipe there. It’s not like those big modern cinemas you see in the malls; it’s a bit rougher around the edges. We have piles of old scripts and props in the back rooms that have been there for years, gathering dust. The lobby is small, so it gets very crowded during the intervals when people are trying to get some air or a drink. Sometimes the power goes out in the middle of a rehearsal, and we have to sit in the dark and wait, which gives us time to just talk. The walls are covered in old posters from shows that happened long before I started working here. There is a specific smell of old velvet and floor wax that never quite goes away. We don't have a big team, so everyone does a bit of everything, from sweeping the aisles to selling the tickets. It’s a lot of work to keep a place like this going, but when the lights go down and the show starts, the quiet feels worth it. Every night is different depending on who is performing.