The National School of Drama (NSD) intends to establish new centers to improve theatre education in the country. In addition to Delhi, NSD has four regional centers in Varanasi, Bengaluru, Agartala, and Gangtok. The government intends to reach out to other centers in order to promote theater education.actor-politician Paresh Rawal, chairman, National School of Drama says, “NSD is planning to open new centres in the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Kerala, and Jammu & Kashmir.” Rawal says that opening a centre in Mumbai is a must as the city is a theatre hub offering platform for regional language shows. “Bengal has a huge theatre tradition while Gujarat holds 2500-3000 across the state in a year.” The idea is to reach out to those places which have a vibrant theatre tradition and hidden talent. “There is a lot of young talent in small towns and cities, and NSD will tap the raw talent and channelise it,” says Rawal. NSD will also introduce a 3-year course in its regional centres. “Till now, Varanasi, Bengaluru, Agartala and Gangtok had a one-year diploma course, but these centres will now have a 3-year full-fledged course,” says Rawal. Introduction of new courses is also in the offing. “New courses such as playwriting will be included, which was surprisingly ignored till now,” says Rawal. Digitisation of content NSD is also planning to digitise its content so that drama students across the globe can have access to it. “We have enormous data of 50,000 hours of plays, lectures and workshops, which would be digitised to help future students,” says Rawal.