Introduction:
Nautanki is a type of Indian folk theatre that is very popular in the region of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. It is defined as a popular theatre that carries an open-air mix of songs. Dance, dialogues and high melodrama that once kept the whole town awake from dusk till dawn.
It emerged as a folk theatre in the late nineteenth century; however, its original roots lie in ancient and medieval folk songs and dances. The history of plays is very much older, and it became a vibrant theme for the nautanki theatre. Until cinemas rose, it was the region’s prime mass entertainment for the people as it provided portable, affordable and instant entertainment. The theatre was stylised by the sounds of ‘dholak’, ‘nagara’, harmonium and ‘shehnai’, etc.
The village masses, whose life was already exhausted by the means of work, family and loans, the theatre provided a medium of escapism through its stories and fables. These stories resembled the life of a common man who is entangled by the work and family load. The themes also raised societal problems such as caste, untouchability and poverty.
The themes also included romance, mystery, kings, ballads and religious tales such as Ramayana and Dussehra.
The theatre employed artists who not only acted but also stood as props such as trees, rivers and mountains, which made the nautanki cost-efficient.
History:
Before the advent of Nautanki, the folk art of ‘Svang’ was very popular in the akharas, which was an all-male club for music, poetry and wrestling among the members. In the 1890s, Indarman’s Hathras Akhara started training performers such as Natharam Gaur, whose troupe was popularized in the Punjabi romance called ‘Shehzadi’ or ‘Rani Nautanki’.
From these acts, the word nautanki gained widespread popularity and all forms of theatre were called by this name.
By the 1910s, the city of Kanpur rose as a second hub of nautanki theatres, where it replaced the original akharas with theatre conventions such as painted backdrops, curtains, choruses, etc.
The mode of these nautanki were always secular, using material from Hindu legends, Raja Harishchandra and Amar Singh Rathore, and, Muslim legends, Laila Majnu and Shirin Farhad.
The language used in this theatre was a mixture of many languages, such as Awadhi, Khari boli, Hindi and Urdu. The amalgamation of these languages reflected the composite and inclusive form of nature of this theatre, where characters of all backgrounds worked together.
By the 1930s-40s, due to the growing nationalist movement in India against the British Raj, nationalist and patriotic themes started growing, such as acts on Jallianwala Bagh massacre, Gandhi’s Dandi March, the Swadeshi Movement and acts on leaders such as Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, and Bhagat Singh gained widespread popularity. It turned the theatre into an arena of political awakening and a nationalist playground.
Two Distinct Styles:
As it spread, two distinctive styles of Nautanki emerged, the ‘Hathras style’ which dates back to the older svang tradition and was characterized as deeply musical and begins with an elaborate classical singing of dhrupad raag. This style was more musical and employed intricate melody, which created an almost ritualistic atmosphere.
The other was the ‘Kanpur style’, which leaned more towards the dramatic and dialogue theme, such as stage acts. It emerged around the early 1900s under the influence of Parsi theatre and, it infused Nautanki with dialogues, scripts, facial expression, curtains, backgrounds and dramatic narrative. The music is less used, that is only for dramatic scenes, which ensures that the story remains comprehensive and emotionally immediate to the audience.
Using the traditional form of Nautanki, performers such as Ram Dayal Sharma and Devendra Sharma have worked diligently to continue the tradition into modern times, taking Nautanki art to city theatre, from the village square to countries overseas, where Nautanki is recognized as living indigenous heritage of India.
How was it performed?
The performance begins with an address to Goddess Saraswati and God Ganesha for their blessings, then the narrator, called ‘Sutradhar’, introduces the story through a song, then the characters alternate their performance between sung verses and witty dialogues, carried by the beat of dholak and nagara, accompanied by the melodies of harmonium and shehnai. The side characters then change their location from forests to palaces, from rivers to mountains and from temples to battlefields, etc.
Historically, all the roles were played by men, but during 1930s, women were also employed to play feminine roles, which gained more depth and appeal to their characters. The shows usually ended with a moral lesson, which kept the audience engaged till dawn.
Themes:
The world of Nautanki is deeply rich with themes from history, folklore and legends. Romantic tragedies like ‘Laila Majnu’ and ‘Heer Ranjha’, and devotional tales like ‘Bhakt Prahlad’, ‘Krishna Sudama’, and heroic chronicles of Prithiviraj Chauhan and Amar Singh Rathore were often depicted, as it was more widespread.
What made these stories distinctive was their seamless blending of cultural traditions and Hindi-Urdu poetic forms, which flew together in these stories. The usage of classical and even Western music transformed the stories into real-life depictions.
The emotional arc of Nautanki typically builds through reflective verses and lyrical intensity and then bursts into a rapid-fire sequence that sends the audience into rapture. At its heart, Nautanki has always been a motivational, dramatic depiction of stories from which a common man can relate to his life.
Contemporary Relevance:
With the advent of cinema, television and OTTs dominating mass culture, the acts of Nautankis have vanished from villages to cities. These acts have now been considered as heritage arts that needs to be protected as it is an indigenous art of India. Though some NGOs, Cultural societies, along with some initiatives of state government, are attempting to revive these arts in villages where the soul of Nautanki once lived. The local actors are encouraged to perform these arts to convey their message of how once a dominated art, has now been left in history books.
Hence, in a polarized age, Nautanki reminds us of India’s plural cultural fabric, where humour and songs became the bridges of humanity.
Conclusion:
From its beginning in the akharas to its transformation into ticketed theatre, Nautanki grew into Awadh’s most popular dramatic form of art. It embodied the spirit of its times by mixing poetry, music, script, and scenes, it brought history, romance, and rebellion alive for the audience.
Even as modern entertainments shifted away, it has shown extraordinary resilience by reinventing itself as both a heritage practice and a medium for social dialogue. Today it stands not merely as a folk art of the past, but as a living reminder of Awadh’s rich cultural tradition and India’s composite identity. Hence, it continues to affirm that popular culture can be both blissful and profound, keeping alive a heritage that still speaks to the present.
Refernces:
Sharma, Devendra. Nautanki: The Musical Theatre of North India: Forms of Drama. Methuen Drama, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2025.
Hansen, Kathryn. Grounds for Play: The Nautankī Theatre of North India. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.
Mehrotra, Deepti Priya. Gulab Bai: Queen of Nautanki Theatre. Exotic India Art.
Singh, Siddhartha. “Nautanki: Evolution, Issues and Challenges.” Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities 12, no. 6 (2020).
Kapoor, Kajal. “Nautanki as a Performative Art Form of North India.” International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Culture.
Singh, Rittvika. “Nautanki in the Time of Independence Struggle: The Tangled History of Sangits and Akharas.” Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities 9, no. 2 (2017).