Ninasam

Ninasam (Kannada: ನೀನಾಸಂ) is a cultural organisation located in the village of Heggodu in Sagar Taluk of the Shivamogga district in the state of Karnataka, India.

Ninasam (also spelt as Neenasam) is the short form of Sri NIlakanteshwara NAtyaseva SANgha, an organisation dedicated to the growth of drama, films and publishing.

The origin of Ninasam occurred in 1945 in Heggodu, when Subbanna and his friends started to get together in the evenings to exchange views and discuss about the politics and other current issues.

[1] After Indian Independence in 1947, this group of boys started a library and also launched a newspaper called The Ashoka Weekly with a circulation of 500.

[2] Subbanna's father was the first president and the initial plays staged were those related to the Hindu epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata.

The publication has been working as a non-profit-oriented concern and has so far published more than 800 books, the subjects of which include literature, theatre, cinema, culture studies, philosophy and humanities.

[3] The films and plays being staged by Ninasam started to attract audiences from all over Karnataka and its popularity grew considerably.

The popularity of Ninasam prompted the Ford Foundation to sponsor a project called Janaspandana whereby similar film festivals, plays and appreciation courses were to be organised in other areas of Karnataka.

Visiting faculty to this institute include Shivaram Karanth, Chandrashekhara Kambara, K. N. Panikkar and Fritz Bennewitz.

Apparently, in the first 11 years of its existence, Tirugata travelled 82,000 km to 172 places and staged 1546 plays for an audience of about 1.1 million.