"An auditorium where 1,000 people could hear the delicate sounds of Indian instruments without the recourse to electronic amplification". Dr. J.J. Bhabha’s vision for India’s first national theatre – the Tata Theatre.
What he achieved was not only India’s first but also the first theatre in the world, conceived, designed and built to serve the exacting acoustic and visual requirement of Indian music, dance and related art forms.
The design of the Tata Theatre is unique. Since an Indian audience sits around the musicians on three sides and their appreciative responses stimulate the artistes, the Tata Theatre stage is built in the thrust shape, almost semi-circular and the auditorium with a similar fan shape. This is why there are five equal segments, each of 208 seats and the last row is so much closer to the stage than the last row of a traditional theatre of the same seating capacity.
