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Curtain up in Bengaluru as theatre takes centre stage again
MUMBAI: The house lights dimmed, the applause swelled and Bengaluru proved, once again, that theatre still knows how to steal the show. The second edition of the Bengaluru Theatre Festival wrapped up with ringing acclaim, turning December 5 to 7 into three days of sold out halls, sharp storytelling and star turns that kept audiences leaning forward in their seats.
Staged across two of the city’s most respected venues, Good Shepherd Auditorium and the Prestige Centre for Performing Arts, BTF Season 2 brought six plays to the city, blending wit, philosophy, satire and introspection. Building on the momentum of its debut edition, the festival leaned confidently into scale, craft and recognisable names from Indian theatre and cinema.
The opening act set the tone. Lillete Dubey, Ira Dubey and Joy Sengupta kicked off the festival with Vodka & No Tonic, a clever, conversational look at love, ageing and modern relationships that mixed humour with uncomfortable truths. From there, the programme moved seamlessly between genres and moods, keeping audiences guessing and engaged.
Rajat Kapoor’s Nothing Like Lear, featuring Vinay Pathak, offered a playful yet poignant riff on Shakespeare, blending laughter with quiet reflection. That introspection gave way to sharper satire in Dhumrapaan, where Kumud Mishra, Shubhrajyoti Barat and the ensemble unpacked the absurdities of urban corporate life, prompting laughs that lingered long after the curtain call.
At PCPA, the festival turned cerebral with Naseeruddin Shah’s Einstein, a performance that balanced intellectual brilliance with emotional vulnerability, bringing the famed physicist off the textbook page and onto the stage as a deeply human figure. The festival closed on an intimate note with Anupam Kher’s solo act Kuch Bhi Ho Sakta Hai, a reflective, humorous exploration of life’s unpredictability that struck a personal chord with many in the audience.
The Bengaluru Theatre Festival forms part of Alchemist Live’s wider theatre circuit, which also includes the Delhi Theatre Festival and the Hyderabad Theatre Festival. With packed houses across all three days and strong word of mouth following every performance, BTF Season 2 did more than entertain. It reaffirmed Bengaluru’s appetite for live performance and raised expectations for what the next curtain up moment might bring.
eNews
PNB partners Kiwi to launch credit-enabled UPI for users
Targets 180 million customers; RuPay card offers 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent cashback
MUMBAI: Swipe, tap, or scan credit is quietly slipping into the rhythm of everyday payments, and Punjab National Bank wants in on the action. The state-run lender has partnered with Kiwi to roll out credit-enabled UPI payments for its 180 million customers, marking a significant push to blend traditional banking with India’s fast-evolving digital payments ecosystem.
At the centre of the collaboration is the launch of the PNB Kiwi Credit Card on the RuPay network. The card is designed with a digital-first approach, offering fully online onboarding and seamless integration with UPI, allowing users to transact via scan-and-pay while accessing credit.
The offering also brings in a rewards layer, with cashback ranging from 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent on online transactions, positioning the product as both a convenience play and a spending incentive.
The move comes as UPI continues to dominate India’s digital payments landscape, increasingly blurring the lines between debit-led transactions and credit access. For PNB, which operates over 10,000 branches around 60 per cent in semi-urban and rural areas, the partnership signals a targeted effort to extend formal credit to segments that have traditionally remained underserved.
The collaboration also reflects a broader industry shift, where banks and fintech platforms are converging to embed credit directly into payment flows, reducing friction while expanding access.
With RuPay credit cards gaining traction and UPI evolving beyond peer-to-peer transfers, the PNB–Kiwi tie-up positions both players at the intersection of scale, accessibility, and the next phase of digital finance in India.
