Earlier this year, George Clooney’s stage adaptation of the 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck raked in $3.28 million in its first week. It broke its own previous record as the highest-grossing non-musical play on Broadway. The play played to 100% capacity, even with an average ticket price of nearly $300 (about Rs 25,000). Across town, another Broadway revival, Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal’s rendition of Shakespeare’s Othello, grossed $3.1 million, with average tickets pushing $380 at the Barrymore Theatre in New York City.
Meanwhile in the West End of London, shows like Cock have experimented with dynamic pricing, seeing top-tier seats soar to £400, and average top-price tickets rising by 9% in 2023-24.Closer home, theatre actor-producer Vidushi Mehra’s play Shadowed, inspired by the Hollywood classic Primal Fear, was staged in Delhi last month with ticket prices selling at Rs 2,500 per person. Similarly, actor Ashutosh Rana’s Humare Ram tour—a theatrical retelling of the Ramayana—has hit 120 house-full nights across 16 cities, with tickets ranging from Rs 800 to Rs 10,000.
Even though the figures augur well for theatre as a business, it defeats any initiative to broaden and democratic the audiences of an art form that has been an integral part of expression and storytelling for hundreds of years. Veteran English actor Derek Jacobi had once said that if we want theatre to remain “part of our blood and bones” it should be accessible to all. It doesn’t take too long to understand that ticket prices are putting theatre beyond the reach of the masses, making it a pursuit of the moneyed elite.
High costs
Industry observers say theatre can never be for the masses due to its limited seating capacity. “It’s also not viable to sustain theatre. Each time a show is presented, it means replicating the whole effort again. The operational cost is high. You rehire the auditorium, reset the stage unlike a film, where the initial cost is high, but subsequent replaying cost is less in comparison to the initial cost. If a film does well, you can recover beyond investment but if theatre is appreciated, the variable operational cost is high but margins are not much,” explains actor-director Danish Husain, whose body of work spans films and series such as Lucca’s World, Yeh Ballet, Taj Mahal 1989, Peepli Live, and Dhobi Ghat.
“Big spectacle has huge costs, which adds to the pricing that most can’t afford. Such plays also shrink the space for experimental theatre. In fact, a mid-size play (average ticket price of Rs 1,000-Rs 2,000) has investment in terms of resources and talent,” says Husain, whose productions also include adaptations of Western classics such as Krapp’s Last Tape and Chinese Coffee, and Ek Punjab Ye Bhi, to name a few.Husain warns that skyrocketing costs are squeezing experimental work into tiny 40-seat venues—if producers can even afford the risk.
“Audiences demand a play which is worth their time and money, and if producers cannot produce an experimental or avant-garde worth the ticket price, the only option left for a production house is to make mass theatre,” adds Husain. “With high rentals, how can a local theatre afford a venue?” asks Vidushi Mehra. “This is the reason why I’m not targeting the masses, but 1% of the population that is aristocratic, well-travelled, and can spend.” For staging Mehra’s Shadowed at Alliance Francaise in Delhi recently, the rentals were as high as Rs 50,000 a day.
“When you attract diverse people, pricing ceases to be a barrier,” says actor-director Shubhrajyoti Barat. In an 800-seater venue with tickets priced Rs 250 to Rs 1,000, the audience is also varied, he adds.
All’s not lost yet
Against this backdrop, institutions like Aadyam Theatre (Aditya Birla Group) and the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META, by the Mahindra Group) are on a mission to democratise live performances—staging plays from Delhi’s Kamani Auditorium to Mumbai’s St Andrews Hall, with ticket prices ranging from Rs 399-Rs 799.
“High ticket pricing is a fallacy. Our plays are reasonably priced and accessible to all since the beauty of theatre lies in its range and accessibility,” says film and theatre actor Shernaz Patel, who is also a programming consultant for Aadyam Theatre. Patel adds that options abound—just as in the West End one can still get a £20 national theatre seat, in Mumbai’s Prithvi Theatre, weekday shows start within Rs 300.
“In fact, kids sitting in Prithvi cafe or in a movie theatre spend more than live theatre,” adds Patel.Nadir Khan, director, actor, producer and programming consultant for Aadyam Theatre, too, challenges the idea that theatre is only for elites. As theatre exists across a wide range of price points, grand venues like Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) in Mumbai or Tata Theatre may command high prices due to their scale and international productions, but theatres like Prithvi and NCPA still offer affordable experiences.
“Shows produced under Aadyam aim to maintain affordability while delivering quality, regardless of venue,” says Khan.Suraj Dhingra, senior vice president of Teamwork Arts Festival and producer, META, recalls his ambitious Going Solo festival that lasted for three years from 2013-2015, bringing artistes from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Kolkata at ticket prices up to Rs 2,000—only to find the market unwilling to pay. “It was meant for the elite. The content, sponsorships and revenues didn’t work as the market wasn’t ready to pay that kind of amount for the ticket price,” reflects Dhingra.
Real challenges
As for the existential and emotional crisis faced by small, independent theatre-makers, there is a fundamental problem of trust and perception. Mehra says audiences don’t believe in theatre as a meaningful experience unless it’s endorsed by a celebrity or known entity. In contrast to cinema or OTT, theatre lacks the industrial support system —marketing, distribution, financing—that ensures wide exposure. “OTT has made the viewership complacent… The first to get hit is live entertainment.
The theatre community has shrunk,” adds Mehra.One of the major expenses for theatre practitioners is renting auditoriums like Kamani and Siri Fort in Delhi that are prohibitively high. “While rental is often calculated in time blocks (4, 8, or 12 hours), not full days, after renting, many lack adequate sound and lighting equipment, adding further costs,” says Husain.Husain highlights the post-independence scenario for creative arts when the government allotted land at nominal prices to build theatre infrastructure.
“This subsidisation was intended to make theatre accessible and affordable. However, these subsidies were not passed on to theatre groups. Instead, most venues now operate commercially, charging high rents. So there is disparity in entertainment pricing, audiences equate live theatre and cinema, expecting similar ticket pricing,” he adds.While in the West, live performances are priced significantly higher than cinema, in India, live theatre struggles to justify higher ticket costs.
“Only in metro cities like Mumbai and Delhi do some plays command higher prices, supported by a niche audience, else a vast majority of Indians (nearly 90%) do not have disposable income for non-essential spending. This constraint directly affects the viability of theatre, especially in smaller cities,” explains Husain.
The way forward
If audiences are willing to spend Rs 600 on a PVR movie ticket, why is theatre expected to be cheaper, asks Khan of Aadyam Theatre. “The challenge is convincing Indian audiences that live performance has unique, intrinsic value. Similarly, institutions like NSD continue to push Hindi and regional theatre, though infrastructure and audience engagement need further development,” he explains.
What is essential is audience engagement—people must see theatre as a viable entertainment option, not a niche luxury. “Theatre needs to be made visible, more accessible, and more integrated into urban and regional culture, like in the case of Marathi and Gujarati theatre. A distinction in pricing strategy, venue planning, and targeted subsidy application could allow both large-scale, high-quality productions and grassroots, community-based theatre to thrive side by side,” adds Khan.
Shubhrajyoti Barat, in his three decades of acting and theatre experience, is seeing a noticeable shift in the dynamics of theatre audiences and participants. “Young actors are increasingly drawn to theatre as an avenue of artistic exploration, often encouraged by their experiences in electronic media. Despite past challenges with audience attendance, innovative approaches like immersive performances in smaller venues are being tried to engage newer audiences,” says Mirzapur actor Barat, who is also known for works like The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Article 15 and Aadyam Theatre’s new play Saanp Seedhi.
With changing times, there is positive change in the audience’s mindset towards appreciating and financially supporting the arts. “More people are encouraged to see arts and the willingness to pay for quality theatre indicates a growing appreciation and evolving perspective towards the art form. Every year, META gets over 400 productions and the excellent 10 are selected by the committee. Apart from Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata, there is increased participation from rural areas for folk theatre, travelling nautankis or rural areas like the Garo Hills in the northeast,” adds Dhingra.
While some urban centres are pushing the envelope with English-language productions, these remain limited in their scope and geography. “English theatre is very limited,” says Husain. “It appeals to very few people. Maybe in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Kolkata—but it’s not mass theatre. It’s not the kind of theatre that everybody would go to,” he adds.“Theatre remains relevant because it is a direct act of communication—between actor and audience, story and society. Even if only 50 people watch a play, that shared moment of reflection is relevant in a way mass content often is not,” adds Barat.