Matta Sri Vamsi

Matta Sri Vamsi is a graduate from the Indian Institute of Science and has been working with theatre for over a decade in Bangalore. This grant will enable him to explore the temporal, spatial, cultural and emotional stories of people from marginalised communities that are shared over the internet.

The social space traditionally occupied by marginalised communities is strongly bound and limited through hierarchies. This distortion pushes them to lead lives of insecurity, injustice and discrimination including untouchability. However in recent times many from these communities have started using social media quite pervasively and claimed their own space, which often they are denied in society. This is creating a new sense of identity among them.

Vamsi’s project aims to document the stories of these people from marginalised in the form of writing letters to the Internet. The art form of letter-writing, which is fast fading from our lives, will enable a close kinship, Vamsi feels, between the writers and readers of these letters. Drawing inspiration from individual stories, Vamsi will develop personas and improvise conversation between the personas and the Internet. Theatre artists will also be invited to assist in improvisations with these letters. These conversations will eventually be reproduced and published as letters addressed to the Internet.   

The outcome of the project will be this publication. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be a copy of the publication.  

This grant is made possible under the special initiative 25x25, with support from lead donor Kshirsagar-Apte Foundation, and philanthropy partners, Titan Company Limited, Priya Paul, and Sethu Vaidyanathan.