“We grew up amidst the artists performing theatre plays. Our community, the Surabhi group, has a history of 137+ years. It was established in the year 1885.

The Surabhi Dramas were performed initially at Surabhi village, in the Kadapa District of Andhra Pradesh with Keechaka Vadha being its first drama. The founders of this beautiful art form are Sri Vanarasa Govinda Rao and their brother Sri Chinnaramaiah Garu.

It was only natural for us to start performing theatre plays right from our childhood. We live in small tents and move from one place to another every six months.

Initially, we were all one group, but later, we had to split into multiple smaller groups and settle in different parts across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana regions. But the art was what knit us together.

We have performed several online shows for our audience across the globe during the Covid 19 pandemic for the last couple of years and now we are slowly getting back to performing live theatre plays in front of the audience.

The youngsters in our community, who are well-educated, are also Surabhi artists who are willing to take this art form forward. Almost all the artists in our community are technicians too. Women not only play female roles but male roles too and vice versa.

We are working to take this cultural art form to the younger generations, in the most engaging ways, as we could across the globe. But for that, we are hoping to get support from the general public and the government, so that our families could sustain further!”