Grant & Projects

Samyuktha Pritham Chakravarthy


Project Period: One year and six months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Productions, which will create a theatrical production titled The Mobile Girls Koottam. Set in a tea-shop built on a small truck, the performance will travel to various locations within Tamil Nadu and to Bangalore and Pondicherry facilitating conversation among actors and audiences around women's lives, their work, bodies and identities. There will be eight shows of the performance as part of this project. The outcomes from this project will be the performances, a travelogue booklet with sketches, photographs, and notes on experiences from the tour drawn from writings by the performers, crew and audience members, and audio-visual documentation of the tour that will be presented as episode/s on Youtube. The Project Coordinator's deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be the booklet, still and video documentation of the performances and the tour, and links to Youtube. Project funds will pay for contract fees, equipment hire, printing and publicity, materials, travel, food and props and costumes.

Amrita Barua


Project Period: One year and eight months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Productions, which will create a work of speculative fantasy eco-fiction centred around the ecology of the tidal sluice networks in Goa. Based on ongoing research into the estuarine geography, its history and architecture, the project will explore stories, materiality of the spaces, repair processes involved, tools and architecture of the sluices through intermedia works including drawing, writing, audio-visual materials, found objects and maps. It will also create the abstract characters Ngan and Nilnil representing the river and ocean respectively, and explore their journeys. The outcomes from this project will be an artist book, a journal documenting the course of the project, and a website consisting of textual and audio-visual essays and a series of drawings. The Project Coordinator's deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be the artist book, a copy of the journal, the essays and drawings, and a download of the website. Project funds will pay for contract fees, printing and publicity, equipment hire, travel and living, materials, props and costumes, purchase of books and subscriptions, and website hosting. 

Dhiraj Rabha


Project Period: One year and eight months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Productions, which will artistically investigate into the notions of home, displacement and identity of a people and a place as seen in the collective memory of the inhabitants of a camp set for surrendered members of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) in Assam Through engagements with memories, narratives, and everyday objects of community members, and resources from archives, the project intends to create a space for conversation that will facilitate a deeper understanding of narratives and positions within and outside the community. The outcome of this project will be a site-specific installation. The Project Coordinator's deliverables to IFA with the final report will be audio-visual documentation of the entire process and of the installation. Project funds will pay for contract fees, travel and living, materials, equipment hire, and printing and publicity.   

Poonam Gautam Jain


Project Period: One year and ten months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Productions, which will explore the politics of hierarchies and erasures of languages through a study of five scripts namely Mahajani, Modi lipi, Tamil numerals, Devanagari and Kannada. Titled Degrees of Exclusion of Languages, this project will attempt to understand linguistic divide as a core dimension of the national education enterprise and a crucial axis of negotiation within our public domain and democracy. It will explore cultural dilemmas and strategies of survival that languages have struggled with. The outcomes from this project will be a set of three-dimensional physical and digital letterpress moveable types for all the five scripts, letterpress prints, lithographs on paper, and a booklet that catalogues all the letters in these scripts in the form that they have existed so far. The Project Coordinator's deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be the digital models, a set of physical letterpress types, copies of the lithographs, copies of the letterpress prints and the catalogue will be the deliverables from this project to IFA.  Project funds will pay for materials, contract fees, studio hire, travel and living. 

Deepa Dhanraj


Project Period: One year and six months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Productions, which will explore the outbursts of artistic responses to the unfortunate death of Rohith Vemula, the circumstances that led to his death, and his suicide note. Anchored around this historic moment and its political and cultural ramifications with respect to the anti-caste movement in India, this project intends to enable conversations with select filmmakers, writers, poets and musicians who engaged deeply with Rohith’s letter. The outcome of this project will be a 60-minute film tentatively titled Speaking to Rohith.  The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the film. Project funds will pay for travel and living, contract fees, equipment hire and studio hire.

This Grant was amicably cancelled based on reasons mutually agreed upon by the Grantee and IFA due to unavoidable circumstances.

Srilata Krishnan


Project Period: One year and three months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Productions that will lead to the creation of sixty poems based on the interior lives of key women characters from the epic Mahabharata. Structured as quasi-dramatic monologues, nesting within the narrative frame of prose passages, this body of imaginative poetic literature seeks to probe into the many dimensions of these characters that have largely remained invisible and unexamined within extant interpretations. In doing so, the work will creatively dialogue with existing tellings and retellings of the Mahabharata. The outcome of this project will be a manuscript containing the narrative prose and the sixty poems. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be this manuscript. Project funds will pay for travel and living, contract fees, communication, printing and stationery, and purchase of books.

Nakul Singh Sawhney


Project Period: Six months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Workshops, Residencies, Seminars, which will create workshops for young people from rural contexts to practice non-fiction filmmaking skills that will empower them to tell their own stories, in the socio-political context of North India. The outcomes of the project are the workshops, including individual sequences prepared by each participant and non-fiction short films that they will make in groups. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be photographs, audio-visual documentation of the workshops, the individual sequences, and the non-fiction short films. Project funds will pay for contract fees, food, travel and living, materials, and stationery.

Tajuddin Azad


Project Period: One year

For the implementation of a Foundation Project with IFA that will engage eighth grade students of the Government High School in Tarafile village, Kalaburagi district with the historic Khwaja Banda Nawaz Dargah by connecting it to their curriculum in social science and languages. Students will explore the Urs celebrations at the Dargah with its sandal procession and Qawwali music performance. The outcome of this project will be a performance and a publication. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the Final Report will include still and video documentation of the process and the performance, and a publication. Project funds will pay for contract fees, travel, workshop, publication, performance, and documentation.

Rani DM


Project Period: One year

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that will engage eight grade students of the Government High School in Hosahundi village, Mysore district with Interactive Theatre practice and its applications by encouraging them to build arguments and dialogues around themes and ideas based on their school curriculum. The outcome of this project will be a performance. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the Final Report will include still and video documentation of the process and the performance. Project funds will pay for contract fees, performance, materials, documentation, travel and living, workshop, food, printing, and equipment hire.

Santhosh DD


Project Period: One year

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that will engage fifth, sixth, and seventh grade students of Government Higher Primary School in Kalkere village, Hassan district with the traditional practice of tingalu mavana habba – a celebration of the rain gods - by connecting it to their curriculum in social science, mathematics, and languages. Students will explore songs and stories based on this practice, while creating their own. The outcome of this project will be a series of performances. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will include still and video documentation of the process and the series of performances. Project funds will pay for contract fees, performance, travel and living, workshop, documentation, food, materials, and stationery.

Shivakka P Kuravatti


Project Period: One year

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that will engage fifth, sixth, and seventh grade students of the Government Higher Primary School in Yadavagiri, Mysore district with the stories and traditional practices of a local rag picker community and a migrant community located near the school. Students will understand and document stories and traditional practices of these communities through the Hejjemela folk dance form, and connect it to their mathematics and language curriculum. The outcome of this project will be a performance. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will include still and video documentation of the process and the performance. Project funds will pay for contract fees, performance, material, workshop, documentation, stationery, travel and living, food, and printing.

Chinar Satishbhai Shah


Project Period: One year and three months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Arts Projects (Research/Practice) that will research into the lives of artist-led institutions that existed in Bangalore between 1990 and 2022. Through an in-depth study of about 10 to 12 such initiatives, the project will inquire into the early history, programming, economic model, community engagement, politics and artistic visions of each space. This is an attempt to discursively engage with an alternative art history that defied the norms of dominant art markets and remained on the fringes. The outcomes from this project will be 10 to 12 commissioned essays and art works, a process essay and a website that will be a repository of all textual and audio-visual materials. The Project Coordinator's deliverables to IFA with the final report will be a downloaded version of the website, audio recordings of all interviews, the 10 to 12 commissioned essays and art works, the process essay and copies of all public announcement posters. Project funds will pay for contract fees and materials.

Ashavari Majumdar


Project Period: Six months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Workshops, Residencies, Seminars, that will create a residency for movement artists and filmmakers to collaboratively explore a language for the practice of the Indian dance-film, with a focus on non-classical and marginalised movement forms. The outcome of the project is the residency and the dance-films that will result from the collaborations. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be photographs, audio-visual documentation of the residency and the dance-films. Project funds will pay for travel and living, food, hire of equipment, contract fees, materials and hire of venue.

Akash Srinivas


Project Period: One year

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA, that will develop a series of twelve podcasts based on the materials available at the SL Bhatia History of Medicine Museum. They will focus on themes related to the history of medicine, traditional medical practices and beliefs, evolution of modern-day medical procedures, women and medicine, deities of disease, and mental health and institutions in colonial India, amongst others. The outcomes will be the podcasts, associated blog-posts and caricatures for each episode, an interactive website to host the podcasts, an audio-guide for the museum, and public events including talks and walking tours in the museum. The Principal Investigator's deliverables to IFA with the final report will be podcasts, blog posts, website, audio-guide and recordings of public events. This is a collaboration with the SL Bhatia History of Medicine Museum, Library and Archives, Bangalore. Project funds will pay for contract fees, production expenses, consumables and transport.

Ammel Sharon


Project Period: One year

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that will research, document and analyse how the University of Mysore has been documented and portrayed in the Star of Mysore newspaper since the late 1970s. Unlike  ‘official’ histories, the project will attempt to narrate the quotidian stories of the University gleaned from opinion columns, photographs and articles from the newspaper’s archives. The outcomes will be a database of the newspaper’s coverage of the University; a visual essay based on this coverage; podcasts and written interviews with alumni who have written for the newspaper; and periodic articles for the newspaper based on research on the scholarly cultures of Mysore. The Principal Investigator's deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the visual essay, podcasts, written interviews, articles and the database. This is a collaboration with the Star of Mysore newspaper, Mysore. Project funds will pay for contract fees and production expenses.

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