Ram Ganesh Kamatham

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA under Arts Projects (Research/Practice), will create a theatrical production based on the imagery and management of water as it moves through the city of Bangalore with a focus on the future developmental of the city. Ram Ganesh Kamatham is the Coordinator for this project.

Ram Ganesh Kamatham is an award-winning playwright, consultant and researcher. He has interdisciplinary academic training with an MA in the Anthropology of Media from SOAS, London and an MSc in International Relations from RSIS, NTU Singapore. He has worked with policy and has consulted with UNESCO in the domain of peace-building. His artistic work is underpinned by practice-led research and often reflects the unique cosmopolitanism found within Indian cities, especially Bangalore. These include his works title Dancing on Glass in 2004, Creeper in 2007, and Bust in 2010. He is the winner of the Sultan Padamsee Playwriting Award in 2020 for his play titled Undaunted which was supported by IFA through an earlier grant. Ram is also a Taijutsu master, a certified mountaineer/rock climber and a licensed SCUBA diver, which are skills that contribute to the world-building and scenography in his plays. Mallika Prasad Sinha, actor and director with Actors Ensemble India Forum, Vishwanath Srikantaiah, water conservation expert from Biome Trust, visual artist Ranjit Kandalgaonkar, and research assistant Ayush Gupta will be the artistic collaborators in the project. Given his experience, Ram is best placed to be the Coordinator of this Foundation Project of IFA.

The play’s title Day Zero refers to the imminent water crisis in the city of Bangalore, in the case of a drought. Bangalore has been developed unsustainably in many ways – particularly with regards to the flow of water through the city. Atop the Deccan platueu, Bangalore has no significant source of water except for a tributary of Arakavathi called Vrishabhavati. With the rapid growth of population in the city since the 1990s, the poor water management in Bangalore has also exposed its urban precarity. The imagery of water movements in the city, like expensive piping from the Cauvery, the water tanker mafia, excessive borewell drilling and a falling groundwater table, points to the story of urban inequalities as well. At the heart of this play are the paradoxes of Bangalore’s development and its disparities,  and a future-focussed approach towards sustainability.

In the play, the movement of the water will be explored, both literally and figuratively. In a literal sense, there is a cascading network of kere (lakes) and kaluve (canals) in Bangalore, through the topographical four ridge-valley system of the city, involving Hebbal, Chellaghatta, Koramangala and Vrishabhavari. Figuratively, it is about the emotional content related to rainfall, tears and sweat, drinking water, drainage and submerged/ subterranean structures.

The play will engage with the metaphor of water in the city, through intersecting timelines from the past and the future. One potential fragment of the play will be set in a dystopic future in 2035 when the city has been submerged under water and only few of the citizens are able to live above the waterline. These privileged few are occupying the superstructures built as a part of the fictional Vrishabhavati Urban Rejuvenation project. This dystopian narrative has a protagonist who is a glass cleaner, originally from Manuvaddar/ Bhovi caste who are well-diggers. The story will unfold, from a request for a glass of water. Another fragment in the play will be set in the colonial past of Bangalore, when boxing was a craze in the city. The protagonist will be a boxer in the 1930s who wanted to survive three rounds with the local boxing champion Gentleman Gunboat Jack whose real name was James Colzie. After challenging him to a fight at the Opera Theatre on Residency Road, the protagonist who is drenched in sweat, is wondering to himself, how he got himself into such a mess.

The staging of the play will involve soundscapes, cartographic data such as topography and GIS data, and elements of verticality drawn from the aesthetics of climbing sports.   

The outcomes of the project would be the playscript and production. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the playscript, and photographs and audio-visual documentation of production.

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Project 560 programme in the manner in which it engages with the question of water management in the city of Bangalore, through capturing the emotional registers of water. It is interesting to note the ironies of a drought ridden Bangalore of the present worrying about a speculative future dystopia of drowning as city. This play will explore the double bind in which the human race finds itself with respect to its existence – depleting groundlevel water at one end, and rising sea levels and melting of the polar ice at another. 

IFA will ensure that the implementation of this project happens in a timely manner and funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with Trustees.

This project is supported by Sony Pictures Entertainment Fund.