Filmmakers Imtiaz Ali and Vikas Bahl will inaugurate the first edition of the annual Khidkiyaan Theatre Festival here on Wednesday.

Organised by Mukesh Chhabra Casting Company, the non-ticketed event will conclude on January 17.

"Theatre is my first love. Whatever I am today, I owe it to theatre. It has given me a purpose in life and this is my way of paying back to theatre in a small way. Khidkiyaan Theatre Festival is the first step in that direction and I would like it to become an annual event," Mukesh Chhabra said in a statement.


The opening ceremony will be followed by a performance by lyricist-musician Swanand Kirkire. The festival, which will be held at the Sathaye College here, will conclude with a session of poetry reading and music performance by actor-singer Ayushmann Khurrana followed by poetry reading by actor Piyush Mishra.

The fest will feature five plays namely Chittaranjan Tripathi's "Gunno Bai", Ishteyak Arif Khan's "Shadow of Othello", Dheerendra Dwivedi's "Old Munk", Prashant Kumar's "Blackbird" and Ram Ji Bali's "Koi Baat Chale".

Produced by Mukesh's father T.C. Chhabra, all the plays apart from "Shadow of Othello" will be performed here for the first time.

"My father introduced me to theatre and I am happy that he has started this initiative," Mukesh added.