Scheme for Upliftment of Utsavi Rangabhumi of Goa

What is the Scheme for Upliftment of Utsavi Rangabhumi of Goa?

Scheme for Upliftment of Utsavi Rangabhumi of Goa is a cultural preservation grant of the Directorate of Art and Culture, Government of Goa, issued under notification DAC/CS-III/Goan Utsavi Rangabhumi/2017/1725.

The scheme exists to protect a specific Goan theatre form. Festive theatre in Goa is known as Gomantakiya Utsavi Rangabhumi; plays staged in villages on the occasion of the local deity's festival. The Directorate's own account records an illustrious tradition in which more than 1,000 plays were performed at village deity festivals across Goa, and in which many of Goa's best-known actors played their first role.

The scheme document is unusually candid about why that tradition declined: the spread of the habit of prompting text during performance, a shortage of women stage artists, rising costs of stage setting, music, lights and costume drapery, and the migration of village populations to the cities. The Government of Goa's answer is this scheme: money for production costs, tied to conditions that push the form back towards its older discipline.

What are the objectives of the scheme?

The notification lists six objectives:

• To revive and preserve the festive theatre of Goan villages.
• To encourage local village groups to restart the Houshi Rangabhumi theatre movement by supporting the revival of sangeet natak, that is musical plays, and prose plays.
• To encourage local female artists and child artists to take part in these plays.
• To encourage amateur artists and to bring discipline into traditional festive theatre.
• To encourage new playwrights, directors, set designers and other stage technicians.
• To build unity and brotherhood in the villages through the medium of theatre.

Alongside the money, the scheme's scope allows the Directorate to arrange short theatre workshops so that groups can learn the basics of acting and stage geography from experts, and to encourage playwrights to write new prose and musical scripts specifically for the traditional Utsavi Rangabhumi.

Who is eligible for the Utsavi Rangabhumi scheme?

A theatre group can apply if:

• The group is a traditional village festive theatre group or an amateur theatre group.
• The group has a tradition of performing its plays during the village deity festival, through the devasthan or through village institutions.
• That tradition has run for at least 25 years.
• The group gives an undertaking that it will present the play without prompting on the day of the performance.
• All roles, including the female roles, are performed by people from the same village.
• The devasthan or village committee certifies that the traditional theatre group of that village performs the play as the tradition may be.
• The group holds a bank account in a nationalised bank, since payment is made into that account.
• The group provides all necessary details required by the Department.

A group is not eligible if:

• It uses professional artists. The notification states that no professional artist will be allowed.
• It brings in performers from outside the village for any role.
• Its performing tradition is shorter than 25 years.
• It refuses the no-prompting undertaking.
• It has already received assistance for a play in the same year: no group gets financial assistance for more than one play per year.

Individuals cannot apply. The beneficiary is the village theatre group, not a single actor, director or writer, although the scriptwriter may separately be awarded on the committee's recommendation.

How much money does the scheme give?

The ceilings are not fixed forever. For both the prose play and the sangeet natak, the notification says the selection committee may decide or suggest the quantum from time to time, depending on the type of the play.

The Department may also identify a few groups for directional support, in which case the fees of the directors and technical experts, and the duration of a short-term production workshop, are decided by the Government from time to time. Where directional support is given, an undertaking from the concerned devasthan, traditional village institution or village committee has to be submitted.

Every release is conditional on funds. The notification states that financial assistance will be released as per availability of funds, and that the number of groups selected each year is decided by the Government from time to time and by the availability of funds.

How to apply for the Utsavi Rangabhumi scheme

1. Download the current application form from the scheme page on the Directorate of Art and Culture website. The Directorate issues a new form each financial year; the form currently published is titled "Upliftment of Utsavi Rangabhumi 2026-27".
2. Get the devasthan or village committee certificate confirming that your group is the traditional theatre group of that village and performs the play as the tradition may be.
3. Sign the no-prompting undertaking, confirming that the play will be presented without prompting on the day of the performance.
4. Assemble the supporting papers — evidence of the 25-year performing tradition, the group's nationalised bank account details, the details of the proposed play and whether it is a prose play or a sangeet natak, and the statement of the actual production cost.
5. Submit the completed form with enclosures to the Directorate of Art and Culture, Panaji, Goa.
6. Wait for the selection committee. A committee appointed by the government selects the traditional festive theatre groups each year, forwards its recommendations to the Government for approval, and the financial assistance is released only after Government approval.

Groups may apply every year. Selection each year is made by the Government on the committee's recommendation and subject to the availability of funds, so past selection does not guarantee future selection.

What are the conditions after the grant is released?

The notification attaches four continuing obligations to any group that accepts money:

• Prior permission for competitions. A group covered under this scheme that wants to present its play in a state-level competition must take prior permission of the Directorate of Art and Culture.
• Financial propriety. Groups receiving assistance must exercise reasonable economy and observe all financial propriety as issued by the government from time to time while incurring the expenditure.
• Recovery with penal interest. In case of misutilisation of the financial assistance, the amount misutilised is recovered from the theatre group with 10% penal interest.
• Refund of unspent money. Any amount remaining unspent out of the assistance released must be refunded to the government treasury by challan within one month after the close of the financial year.

A group disobeying any rule under the scheme is debarred from taking any benefit of the department; not merely from this scheme.

Common reasons an application fails

• No devasthan or village committee certificate, which is the document that establishes the group's traditional standing.
• The 25-year tradition cannot be evidenced.
• Outside or professional performers cast in any role, including female roles.
• A second application in the same year after assistance has already been received for one play.
• No nationalised bank account in the group's name, which makes payment impossible.
• An inflated cost statement, since the assistance is capped at 50% of actual cost and the committee assesses the type of play.
• A pending refund or unsubmitted account from a previous year's grant.

How long does the scheme run?

Clause (ii) of the short title and commencement provision states that the scheme came into force from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette and was to remain in force up to 31st March, 2025. The Directorate has nonetheless published an application form for 2026-27 on the scheme page, which indicates the scheme is being continued. Applicants should download the current year's form from the Directorate's own page rather than reusing an older one, and should ask the Directorate to confirm the operative notification if the point matters.

The Government retains wide discretion. It is supported to relax any or all clauses or conditions of the scheme in genuine cases, to frame guidelines from time to time for better implementation, and any question of interpretation of a clause, word or expression of the scheme is decided by the Government, whose decision is final and binding on all concerned.

Where to get help

• Directorate of Art and Culture, Government of Goa, Panaji. The scheme page and the year-specific application form are published at artandculture.goa.gov.in
• Email: dir-dac.goa@nic.in, the address published on the Directorate's website
• Telephone: 2404600, the number listed on the Directorate's website

There is no application fee, and no intermediary can obtain a sanction. The selection committee's recommendation and the Government's approval are the only route to a release.

How to check your application status

This scheme has no online tracking portal and no application number is issued at the time of submission, so there is no dashboard or SMS system to check. Status has to be followed up directly with the Directorate of Art and Culture.

What actually happens after you submit the form:

1. The Directorate first checks that the form, the devasthan or village committee certificate and the no-prompting undertaking are complete. An incomplete file is usually held back rather than formally rejected, so a group that hears nothing back should assume the file is still short of a document rather than assume it has been cleared.
2. A government-appointed selection committee reviews the applications received for that financial year and decides which traditional festive theatre groups to recommend.
3. The committee's recommendations go to the Government for approval. Financial assistance is released only after that approval, and only up to the funds actually available that year.

How to follow up:

• Call the Directorate of Art and Culture, Panaji, on 2404600 and ask for the status of the Utsavi Rangabhumi application by the group's name and the village or devasthan under which it applied.
• Write to dir-dac.goa@nic.in with the group's name, village, and the year the form was submitted, and ask whether the file is complete and whether the selection committee has taken it up.
• Keep the acknowledgement or receipt copy of the submitted form; the Directorate will ask for it to trace the file, since there is no separate tracking ID.
• Because assistance is capped by yearly fund availability and by the number of groups the Government decides to support that year, a group that applied but is not on that year's approved list can ask the Directorate whether it may be carried forward or should reapply with the next financial year's form.

There is no fee and no authorised agent for this scheme, so any offer to "expedite" the status or the release of funds for a payment should be reported to the Directorate rather than acted on.