“With the world getting very polarised, arts and the humanities are extremely important,” says Ravichandar V., explaining the raison d’être behind Sabha, a new arts and community centre in Bengaluru, which is all set to host its first open house this weekend. And it is why places like Sabha, envisioned by Ravichandar as a “privately enabled, public purpose space,” with a “focus on arts, crafts and culture,” are needed.

Sabha after restoration.
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As someone who has been deeply invested in organising and promoting cultural events in the city for decades, Ravichandar firmly believes that there are simply not enough public spaces for the arts in Bengaluru. Unfortunately, it is also an area where overall philanthropic funding is traditionally low in India. “We have a lot of problems in health, education, livelihood, and so on, so understandably, the bulk of philanthropic money goes towards them,” says the Bengaluru-based civic evangelist and cultural advocate, a trustee of Ammini Trust, which has spearheaded and funded this project.

Sabha before restoration.
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“So, my wife and I decided that our family trust, Ammini Trust, would help create public spaces in Bengaluru for arts, crafts and conversations,” he says, adding that Sabha will be primarily geared towards showcasing visual and performing arts and for artisans to display their work. “The primary motivation really was to create a public space since we don’t have enough,” he says. “Of course, other people are doing amazing work, but we could do much more for a city of 14 million.”

Inside Sabha
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About Sabha

On a warm weekday afternoon, I visit Sabha, located on the Kamaraj Road in Shivajinagar, flanked by shops and houses, a light-filled, airy oasis of calm in the city’s busy commercial hub. Ravichandar shows me around the place, highlighting the attempts to retain the original structure and repurpose already-existing material, a nod to minimal environmental impact and heritage preservation.

The property, which consists of two buildings, one with a flat Madras Terrace and the other with a pitched roof, linked by a courtyard, retains its old-world charm, thanks to its carved wooden pillars, large windows and heavy doors. But there is no stinting on contemporary accoutrements, either, including a retractable platform, air conditioning, a projector screen and top-class lighting and sound systems.

According to Ravichandar, the school, the first building of which was built over 160 years ago, belongs to the RBANM’s Educational Charities, founded by Dharmarathnakara Rai Bahadur Arcot Narrainsawmy Mudaliar, one of the most wealthy gentry of those times. Narrainsawmy Mudaliar, a self-made man who had started his life as a vegetable trader, was deeply invested in education, especially for the less fortunate, and went on to establish many educational institutes in the city. “His descendants continue to run these schools as non-profits, focusing on education for the underprivileged,” he says. “Among their many properties is this one on Kamaraj Road, which has now become Sabha. “

Some of the changes that were made included restoring the 160-year-old Madras Terrace of the first building, using the original construction method, and redoing the new roof of the second building to make it a performance space.
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Value and economics

The property, which has been in disuse for over 20 years, was in bad shape when the Ammini Trust took over. “The wood had given way, the structures were damaged, there were a lot of leakages,” recalls Ravichandar, listing some of the changes that were made, which included restoring the 160-year-old Madras Terrace of the first building, using the original construction method, redoing the new roof of the second building to make it a performance space, doing a damp proof course to prevent water seepage into the walls and raising the plinth of the building to make it flood proof. Architect Bijoy Ramachandran of Hundredhands, the same person who did BIC, was roped in to restore this property with minimum waste, he explains. “We also had a well-respected conservation consultant, Professor Rabindra Vasavada, based out of Ahmedabad, who guided us through this whole process,” he says.

Sabha before restoration.
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While Ravichandar prefers not to disclose the actual cost of the entire restoration, he does mention that restoration is around 40% more expensive than constructing a new building from scratch. However, he is also convinced that the additional expense is worth it and hopes that it will inspire more philanthropists to go down the heritage-restoration route. “I wouldn’t look at it as an expensive project, but one worth investing in because the city benefits, there is this learning moment about heritage conservation and a connection between past traditions and current modernity. You cannot put a value to those things.”

As far as ensuring economic sustainability is concerned, Ravichandar says that they plan to cover the running costs of Sabha by “renting the place out, carefully curating this by ensuring that the people who come fit into our larger ethos,” he says. Additionally, any surpluses generated will go towards bringing arts and crafts to underprivileged children. “We have built a community here of 60 kids from relatively disadvantaged backgrounds and do art classes for them,” says Ravichandar.

Sabha has already hosted several events, including those that were part of the BLRHabba and Bangalore Art Weekend.
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Open day and more

Sabha, which was finished in March 2024 and has already hosted several events, including those that were part of the BLRHabba and Bangalore Art Weekend, is now all geared towards hosting its first open house weekend. “This is the first time Sabha is doing its own programming,” says Dipti Ramesh, Ravichandar’s daughter-in-law, who has curated this event. “We decided to do a little bit of our own programming to showcase the full capacity of what Sabha has to offer.”

The lineup for this open house weekend, to held on April 12 and 13 from 10 am onwards, will have something for both children and adults, free of cost, including music performances, sketching sessions, talks, heritage walks, a flea market, storytelling and magic shows and a book launch by a young author. Some of the highlights include a special morning walk through the neighborhood around Kamraj Road led by Arun Pai of Bangalore Walks; a show by young magician Jayant Patwari, all of 14; a traipse through the Bangalore Cantonment area at night, led by Gully Tours; a talk about the city’s temples and a performance by Susheela Raman, Sam Mills and Jeet Thayil, titled A Golden String, which delves into the prophetic words and vision of the poet William Blake.

According to Dipti, two main ideas went into the programming. “We wanted to stay rooted in RBANM’s value system of this being an educational space, so we wanted to keep the doors open for children,” she says. Additionally, there is a lot of focus on the city of Bengaluru. “The idea was to keep us rooted in the culture of the children and the culture of heritage, and how we were placed at the juxtaposition of those two,” says Dipti, who believes that while this is the first of Sabha’s original programming, more such will follow.

To know more about Sabha, follow the Instagram page @sabhablr

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