Ank Theatre's Five decades of Hindi theatre culminate in the epic new production Veera Rani Abbakka!
Mumbai, September 2026: ANK, the theater group founded by the late actor, director and theatre-maker Dinesh Thakur in 1976, completes 50 years on October 1, 2026. To mark this significant milestone, ANK presents STAGE 50 – The Dinesh Thakur Legacy Festival, a celebration of five decades of theatre, featuring a specially curated repertoire of ANK's landmark productions alongside its brand-new 50th-year production, Veera Rani Abbakka
– The Queen of the Seas, The Fearless Flame of Ullala.
With 88 productions and more than 7,700 performances across India and abroad, ANK's five-decade journey has been shaped by Dinesh Thakur's unwavering commitment to the stage. From its inception in 1976 until his passing in 2012, Dinesh Thakur remained at the heart of the group's creative journey, leaving behind not only an extensive body of work but also generations of actors and theatre practitioners whom he mentored.
STAGE 50 is conceived as both a celebration of this legacy and a continuation of Dinesh Thakur's belief in keeping theatre alive, evolving and accessible to new audiences. The Mumbai festival will bring together some of ANK's landmark productions, including Beewion Ka Madarsa on 17th Oct and Sita Banbas on 1st Nov, alongside the new production Veera Rani Abbakka.
“Completing 50 years of ANK is both a moment of immense pride and a deeply personal responsibility for all of us who have been part of Dineshji’s journey. For our 50th year, I wanted to bring to the stage a story that embodies the courage, conviction and spirit of resistance that I believe theatre can keep alive. Rani Abbakka’s story stayed with me because she saw the danger of colonial domination at a time when others were willing to compromise. That a woman from a small coastal kingdom could stand up to a powerful foreign force and fight for the sovereignty of her people is a story that deserves to be known, remembered and experienced on stage,” says Preeta Mathur Thakur, President, ANK, and Writer, Designer, Director & Actor of Veera Rani Abbakka.
A NEW STORY FOR ANK'S 50TH YEAR
Veera Rani Abbakka brings to the stage the extraordinary story of Rani Abbakka of Ullala, the 16th-century queen of coastal Karnataka who stood against Portuguese expansion and their attempts to control the region's lucrative maritime trade.
Image Source: Mindworkz PR
At a time when powerful foreign forces were tightening their hold over India's western coast, Abbakka recognised the threat beyond trade and refused to surrender the sovereignty and economic independence of her kingdom. Building her naval strength, forging strategic alliances and employing guerrilla warfare, she led the resistance against the Portuguese and earned the name Abhaya Rani – the Fearless Queen.
The production draws upon the vibrant theatrical traditions of Yakshagana, through which Abbakka's legend has survived across generations, bringing together history, oral tradition, music, movement and spectacle.
For ANK, the choice of Abbakka as its 50th-year production is significant: a story about a woman who refused to compromise, a kingdom determined to protect its independence, and a legacy that deserves to be brought to a new generation of audiences.
FROM MUMBAI TO THE COUNTRY
The Mumbai celebrations of STAGE 50 will unfold through September and October 2026 at Fine Arts Society Auditorium, Chembur; INT Aditya Birla Theatre, Babulnath; Prithvi Theatre, Juhu; Tata Experimental Theatre, NCPA; and Gadkari Rangayatan, Thane, with performances from ANK's repertoire alongside Veera Rani Abbakka.
The celebrations will extend beyond Mumbai with the Dinesh Thakur Legacy Tour 2026–27, beginning with Sita Banbas on 4 October 2026 at Heggodu village in Karnataka, where ANK will perform for NINASAM (Sri Nilakanteshwara Natyaseva Sangha). The tour will then travel to Jaipur in November, presenting Aapas Ki Baat, Hum Dono and Sita Banbas on 27, 28 and 29 November 2026, respectively. Through the tour, ANK aims to take its repertoire to audiences across the country, collaborate with theatre institutions and local theatre communities, and carry forward Dinesh Thakur's enduring legacy and his vision of creating new audiences for Hindi theatre.
STAGE 50 is therefore not simply a look back at five decades of ANK. It is a celebration of where the group has come from, while creating new stories, new audiences and new possibilities for the future of theatre.
Synopsis:
Abbakka, queen of Ullala, a small coastal principality (in what is now South Karnataka near Mangalore), had made a pledge to her dying mother Queen Hiriya Abbakka that she would avenge her defeat and humiliation at the hands of the Portuguese. With the economic and social well being of her subjects at heart and recognizing immediately the nefarious exploitative Portuguese objectives, Rani Abbakka went against the Portuguese strict stipulation of trading only with them. The Portuguese were out to monopolize the lucrative trade of pepper, spices and other goods at the low price they offered. The Portuguese had already moved their well- armed fleet into the western Indian coast under the pretense of providing protection but the Rani was astute enough to recognize that the next step would be dominion.
However, her husband, who ruled over Mangalore did not share her fears and urged by financial sops allowed the Portuguese to build their fort in Mangalore. Defying her over-cautious and later, rather hostile husband, Lakshamappa, and the under- confident nobles in her court, Rani Abbakka decided to resume trade and business relations with other foreign ports in the Arabian countries in defiance of the Portuguese diktat.
She went about building better ships, upgrading her fleet and strengthening her forts. In a conference with the rulers of her neighbouring kingdoms of Tulunadu, during the wedding festivities of her daughter, she sought support against the Portuguese but was sorely disappointed. However the Rani had good diplomatic relations with the Zamorin of Calicut.
Unheedful of the warnings by the Portuguese, the Rani started trade in spices and other goods with the Arabian countries with the Zamorin’s help. The Portuguese captured one of her ships in mid-sea and angered, Abbakka attacked the Mangalore Fort defeating the Portuguese.
When the Portuguese retaliated by laying siege to Ullala, the Rani rallied her army, leading from the front to challenge the Portuguese might and wresting freedom for Ullala and later even for Mangalore. For her bravery she came to be known as the Abhaya Rani – the fearless Queen of the seas. She used subterfuge and guerilla tactics to keep the mightier Portuguese at bay till she was betrayed by her own kin. She was one of the earliest Indians to fight the colonial powers and is regarded as the first woman freedom fighter of India.
The courage and initiative of Rani Abbakka Chowtha was unparalleled and almost without precedent. While The East India Company and later the English succeeded in enslaving all of India, Rani Abbakka divined the intentions of the economically oppressive Portuguese and threw them out of Ullala and effectively greatly reduced their dominion of the West coast of India, limiting it to Goa. Rani Abbakka is one of the first few but far lesser known heroes of the Indian Freedom Movement.
ANK PRESENTS VEERA RANI ABBAKKA The Queen of the Seas, The Fearless Flame of Ullala
Written, Designed & Directed by Preeta Mathur Thakur
Set Design ATUL TIWARI
Dialogues RICHA SHARAD
Costumes MALA DEY
Dance Choreography TANUSHREE GUPTA
Sound AMAN GUPTA
Management &
Production PREETA MATHUR THAKUR
Duration : 2 hrs. with an interval of 10 minutes
DRAMATIS PERSONAE-
Preeta Mathur Thakur, Aman Gupta, Mukul Nag, Prakash Vaswani, Neeta Mohindra,
Ravish Kumar, Vivek Marwaha, Supurna Malakar, Jayakara, Kshitij Kashyap, Titiksha
Taggar, Nirali Kalani, Brajeshwar, Jawed Rehman, Kaustubh Sawant, Manohar Joshi,
Rohan Mehta, Akshay Ganesh, Gourrav Kumar, Krushan Doshi, Rishab Sawhney, Mohit
Laddha, George Darley, Rafael Stemplewski, Cesar Lorento Raton
CREDITS –
Lights – Shivaji Shinde
Sound – Saurabh Das
Mumbai Performances:
18 September – Fine Arts Society Auditorium, Chembur | 6:45 PM (Invitee Show)
27 September – INT Aditya Birla Theatre, Babulnath | 7 PM (Premiere Show - Public)
8 October – Prithvi Theatre, Juhu | 8 PM
9 October – Prithvi Theatre, Juhu | 6 PM & 9 PM
18 October – Tata Experimental Theatre, NCPA | 6:30 PM
24 October – Gadkari Rangayatan, Thane | 7:30 PM
Tickets ( Bookmyshow ): https://in.bookmyshow.com/plays/veera-rani-abbakka/ET00512897
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