The 11th Bharat Rang Mahotsav, the much-awaited annual theatre festival of India's National School of Drama (NSD) that begins here Jan 7, will feature more new faces, experimental forms and a revival of old classics. Billed as the biggest in Asia, the Jan 7-19 festival will host 63 plays - 51 from India and 12 from abroad.

It will also have an exhibition devoted to legendary playwright Badal Sircar.

"It is a departure from last year in the sense that the festival will have more new faces, more classics and a bigger slice of the Bengali stage to showcase changing theatre," Anuradha Kapur, director of NSD, who is coordinating the festival and overseeing preparations, told IANS in an interview:

The plays will be staged at seven venues - Kamani Auditorium, the Shri Ram Centre, Meghdoot (open air), the LTG Theatre and three theatres in the premises of the NSD-Abhimanch, Sammukh and Bahumukh.