Award Winning Tiatr Festival

What is the Award Winning Tiatr Festival?

Award Winning Tiatr Festival is a scheme of the Tiatr Academy of Goa (TAG), the body for Konkani stage under the Art, Culture and Museums Department, Government of Goa. The scheme addresses a specific gap: a tiatr that wins a major competition in Panaji or Margao is usually seen by one auditorium's worth of people and then disappears. The festival pays the director or producer to bring that same production back to life and stage it again in the talukas.

According to the Tiatr Academy of Goa Citizen's Charter published on goa.gov.in, the Academy organises an annual festival made up entirely of tiatrs that have placed 1st, 2nd or 3rd in named competitions, and the festival travels to various talukas of Goa, with venues chosen by the Academy. Every performance is staged without charging tickets.

The core financial commitment is a per-tiatr remuneration to the director or producer, tiered by which competition the tiatr won. On top of that, where the taluka venue has no furnished auditorium, the Academy pays service providers directly to arrange the stage, lights and sound, so the producer is not left carrying an infrastructure bill in a village hall.

Tiatr, sometimes transliterated as teatro, is the traditional Konkani theatre form built around acts called podd'dde and songs called kantaram. This scheme sits downstream of the Academy's own competitions and of the Kala Academy's tiatr competitions, functioning as a second life for the winners.

Who is eligible for the Award Winning Tiatr Festival?

You can apply if you are the director or producer of a tiatr that placed 1st, 2nd or 3rd in any one of these four competitions:

• Tiatr Academy of Goa Popular Tiatr Competition
• Kala Academy Group 'A' Tiatr Competition
• Kala Academy Group 'B' Tiatr Competition
• Tiatr Academy of Goa Children's Tiatr Competition

You cannot apply if:

• Your tiatr placed 4th or lower in one of the qualifying competitions. Only the top three placements carry entry.
• Your tiatr won a prize in a competition outside these four. A win at a village or parish-level competition does not qualify, however well received the production was.
• You are not the director or producer of the winning tiatr. The remuneration is paid to the person who mounted the production, not to individual cast members.
• You intend to charge tickets at the festival performance. Free admission is a binding condition.

Conditions that apply after you are selected:

• The presentation of the tiatr, including the kantaram, must be done exactly the way it was presented in the respective competition.
• The tiatr must be shown without charging tickets to the audience.
• Non-adherence to the performance norms may result in the payments being withheld.
• The Academy may depute an observer to verify whether the performance follows the norms.

That observer clause is the practical enforcement mechanism, and it is worth taking seriously. Recasting a lead role, dropping songs to shorten the running time, or reworking the comedy for a taluka audience all count as departures from the competition version.

How much does the Award Winning Tiatr Festival pay?

The remuneration is fixed per tiatr and tiered by the competition that produced the award:

The rate applies to each tiatr that won 1st, 2nd or 3rd place. A producer who holds award-winning tiatrs from more than one competition is therefore looking at more than one payment, one per qualifying production staged at the festival.

Infrastructure support. Where no furnished auditorium is available at the taluka venue, the Tiatr Academy of Goa makes payment directly to the service providers for arranging stage, lights, sound and similar requirements, at rates fixed by the Academy. This money does not pass through the producer's hands and does not come out of the remuneration figure above.

The platform itself. Beyond the cash, the scheme gives an award-winning production a run of dates in front of taluka audiences it would not otherwise reach, which is, for most Konkani stage producers, the substantive benefit.

What documents are required?

The document list for this scheme is deliberately short, because the Academy already holds its own competition results and can verify a Popular Tiatr Competition or Children's Tiatr Competition win internally. For a Kala Academy Group 'A' or Group 'B' win, keep the award documentation available.

How to apply for the Award Winning Tiatr Festival

1. Confirm your tiatr qualifies. It must have placed 1st, 2nd or 3rd in the Tiatr Academy of Goa Popular Tiatr Competition, the Kala Academy Group 'A' or Group 'B' Tiatr Competition, or the Tiatr Academy of Goa Children's Tiatr Competition.
2. Print the prescribed application form, set out in the Tiatr Academy of Goa Citizen's Charter on goa.gov.in and also available at the Academy office.
3. Fill in every mandatory field and attach self-attested copies of your Aadhaar card and PAN card.
4. Sign the form and write the date on it, then submit it at Tiatr Academy of Goa, AS-1 / AS-4, Block A, 2nd Floor, Campal Trade Centre, Opposite Kala Academy, Campal, Panaji, Goa 403001.
5. Keep a photocopy of the submitted form and any acknowledgement, and wait for the Academy to communicate your festival date and taluka venue.

What happens after you are selected?

The Tiatr Academy of Goa decides the venues and allocates dates across the talukas. Once your slot is fixed, your obligation is narrow but strict: restage the tiatr exactly as it was presented in the competition, kantaram included, and admit the audience free.

Where the venue has no furnished auditorium, the Academy engages and pays the service providers for stage, lights and sound. You do not need to negotiate or front those costs.

The Academy may send an observer to your performance to verify compliance with the norms. A favourable observation clears the way for the remuneration; an adverse one can hold it up.

Why payments get withheld under this scheme

• The production was changed. Any material departure from the competition version; cast substitutions that alter the performance, dropped or altered kantaram, a reworked script — breaches the core norm and can cost the payment.
• Tickets were charged. Charging admission at a festival performance breaches a binding condition.
• The observer reported non-compliance. The Academy's deputed observer is the mechanism by which the norms are checked in practice.
• The tiatr did not actually qualify. A placement below 3rd, or a win in a competition outside the four named ones, is a straightforward ineligibility.
• Missing PAN. The remuneration is a payment to an individual or producer, and a missing PAN card copy will stall it at the accounts stage.

Where to get help

• Tiatr Academy of Goa, AS-1 / AS-4, Block A, 2nd Floor, Campal Trade Centre, Opposite Kala Academy, Campal, Panaji, Goa 403001. Application forms are issued and collected here.
• Directorate of Art and Culture, Government of Goa: Sanskruti Bhavan, Patto, Panaji. Phone 0832-2404600, email dir-dac.goa@nic.in. This is the parent directorate for the Academy.
• Citizen's Charter. The full festival norms and the application proforma are published in the Tiatr Academy of Goa Citizen's Charter on goa.gov.in.

The decision of the Tiatr Academy of Goa in all matters related to this festival is final and binding, and the Academy reserves the right to change the rules of the festival. Check the current year's terms before committing to a restaging. There is no application fee.

How to check your application status

There is no online portal or tracking number for this scheme. The application is a paper form submitted by hand at the Tiatr Academy of Goa office, so status checking works the same way: in person or by phone, not through a login.

1. Wait for the festival's annual announcement. The Tiatr Academy of Goa organises this festival once a year and does not process applications on a rolling basis. If you submitted your form recently, there is nothing to check until the Academy has drawn up that year's festival schedule.
2. Call the Directorate of Art and Culture on 0832-2404600 and ask for the Tiatr Academy of Goa desk. Give the competition name, placement (1st, 2nd or 3rd) and the date you submitted your form. Because the Academy already holds the competition results internally, staff can usually confirm whether your form has been logged against your placement.
3. Visit the Academy office directly at AS-1 / AS-4, Block A, 2nd Floor, Campal Trade Centre, Opposite Kala Academy, Campal, Panaji, if a phone call does not resolve it. Bring your photocopy of the submitted form and acknowledgement, since there is no reference number issued at submission.
4. Watch for direct communication from the Academy. Once venues and dates are fixed for the year, the Academy contacts selected directors and producers about their taluka and performance date rather than publishing a public list. No news by the time the festival season is underway is itself worth a follow-up call.
5. After the performance, follow up on payment separately. Being selected and performing does not automatically mean the remuneration has been released; the Academy may still be awaiting its observer's report on whether the performance matched the competition version. A follow-up call to the same helpline is the way to check whether that clearance has come through.