Maharashtra

Samma Blu


Grant Period: one year

For working with the collections of ‘Mann Maps’ at the Kalakriti Archives in Hyderabad, Telangana. This fellowship supports research on the maps of Hyderabad, commissioned by the Nizam of Hyderabad in 1908 in the aftermath of the devastating floods in the city. These maps were created under the supervision of Leonard Munn, chief inspector of mines under the Nizam regime. The research aims at studying the idea of map-making and cartography on the one hand, and interaction between the map and its user on the other, in an attempt to understand the human experience of maps. The outcome of the project will include a video art installation, a publication, workshops, talks, and events.

Supriya Menon


Grant Period: over one year

For working with  the Kerala Museum, Kochi to envisage and curate a series of activities engaging the collection that includes exhibitions, public programmes and outreach events for both adults and children. The Kerala Museum’s collection is representative of important milestones in the world of visual art from all over India. Beginning with Raja Ravi Verma, Rama Verma, and Abanindranath Tagore, the collection includes artists from Shantiniketan; the Bengal School; those who were part of the Progressive Movement like M F Husain, F N Souza, Akbar Padamsee, as well as contemporary ones.

Smita Bellur


Grant Period: over one year

For a foundation-administered project that supports research into the history, evolution and current musical practice of the Mir musicians of Rajasthan. Through field trips and intensive interactions, this study seeks to analyse the geographical, historical and socio-political confluences, continuities, fissures and divergences in the recent decades that have impacted the trajectories of the music of the Mirs. The outcome of this project will be an essay. 

Shruthi Vishwanath


Grant Period: over one year

For the creation of a performance based on the abhangs - devotional poetry dedicated to the deity Vithoba - of women warikari saints of Maharashtra. Through intensive travel and research, this project seeks to interpret and perform in the public domain, primarily through music, about 10 to 12 poems of the women saints whose works currently exist only as textual documentation. The outcomes will be two music concerts and recordings of the 10 to 12 songs.  The Grantee's deliverables to IFA with the Final Report will be translations of the chosen songs, audio recordings of the studio recorded songs and video documentation of the performances. 

Sapan Saran


Grant Period: over seven months

For research into the notions of gender and identity, with specific reference to gender testing in the field of athletics. Through detailed interviews and study, this research will aim to gather a nuanced understanding of gender as a spectrum rather than a binary, challenging accepted modes of identity.  The outcome of this grant will be a broad structure for a play and a possible script. The Grantee's deliverables to IFA with the Final Report will be the play structure. 

Sandesh Bhandare


Grant Period: One year and six months

For research into the changing practices and ecology of the performance form of Tamasha across Maharashtra. Building on earlier work also supported by IFA, this project entails revisiting, after nearly fifteen years, villages in the Konkan, western and northern Maharashtra, Vidarbha and Marathwada regions to document photographically the cumulative impact of socio-political and economic forces on the art form and the lives of its performers. The outcome of this project will be photographs with field notes. 

Rahul R Ranadive


Grant Period: over one year and six months

For research into the work of the Wancho Literary Mission in Arunachal Pradesh towards the development and propagation of the Wancho script.  The outcome of this project will be a video of the documented material. 

Afrah Shafiq


Grant Period: Over one year

For working with the cultural history archive at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences Calcutta (CSSSC) which contains a wide variety of visual materials from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Bengal that includes books, journals, popular paintings, prints, posters, hoardings, advertisements and commercial art productions. Afrah’s research will culminate in a series of short videos that will portray stories of resistance of women in the nineteenth century, loosely themed around ‘Women and Impudence/Cheeky Girls’.

Mohit Takalkar


Grant Period: Over two months

For the creation of a production based on a Marathi script titled ‘Flat Number F-1/105’. Through active collaborations among the director, actors and the playwright, the performance seeks to address issues around identity through a reflection on the aesthetic and political perceptions of ‘colour’.

Kush Badhwar


Grant Period: Over one year

For research, collation and documentation of materials from archives related to the practice of a revolutionary poet who has been an active advocate for a separate state of Telangana. This artistic engagement will be documented through photographs, text, video, and recorded audios of political discourse, conversations and interviews.

Pages