Its time for the theatre lovers to rejoice in the capital as the ninth edition of the National School of Drama's "Bharat Rang Mahotsav" opens at Siri Fort Auditorium on January 6 with a performance by Sasha Waltz, the celebrated dancer-cum-choreographer from Germany.

While the inauguration will be performed by Union Tourism and Culture Minister Ambika Soni at Siri Fort Auditorium, performances by Indian and international theatre directors will be staged at Kamani Auditorium, Shri Ram Centre and three NSD theatres -- Bahumukh, Sammukh and Abhimanch -- during the 15-day long festival.

Of the 52 performances, 13 will be from Australia, Bangladesh, China, Pakistan, Germany, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Nepal, Poland, Sri Lanka, Switzerland and Uzbekistan, while 39 will be home productions.  International dance theatre will be represented by the works of Leszek Bzdyl, Beatrice Jaccard and Peter Schelling. Major Indian dancers and choreographers including Maya Krishna Rao, Padmini Chettur, Geeta Chandran and Veenapani Chawla will also perform during the festival.

The Indian plays will feature celebrity directors like Prasanna, Nadira Zaheer Babbar and C.R. Jambe as well as important contemporary directors like Sunil Shanbag, Anuradha Kapur, Chetan Datar, Zuleikha Chaudhary, Suman Mukhopadhyay, Koushik Sen and Heisnam Tomba.

For the first time, the festival will pay tributes to theatre director Alyque Padamsee, who will stage his play "Macbeth", and choreographer Narendra Sharma, who will show "Mukhantar and Conference".  Another innovation at the festival will be that Indian directors will interact with their counterparts and explore the possibilities of performing on the festival circuit.