Abhishek Rajaram Khedekar captures the quieter realities of Maharashtra’s travelling Tamasha communities

What began in 2016 as an academic assignment slowly grew into a years-long engagement with Maharashtra’s travelling Tamasha communities for photographer Abhishek Rajaram Khedekar, who spent six months travelling with a Tamasha family before returning to the community again between 2022 and 2023 to deepen the project further. While Tamasha is often seen through the lens of colour, music, dance, and spectacle, Khedekar’s exhibition looks beyond the stage lights to focus on the lives of the people carrying this folk tradition across generations. Currently on view at the Dilip Piramal Art Gallery, the exhibition blends documentary photography with constructed visual narratives to create an intimate portrait of the communities sustaining this art form.

Looking beyond performance

For Khedekar, the project began with a fascination for the visual energy and theatricality of Tamasha. But over time, it was the quieter moments away from the stage that began shaping his understanding of the community and their lives.

“When I first started travelling with the Tamasha families, I was naturally drawn to the performances, the lights, the costumes, and the energy around them. But very quickly, what stayed with me the most were the moments outside the stage — the travelling, waiting, cooking, resting, and the quieter moments between performances.

I remember realising that the real story was not only in the spectacle itself, but in the everyday lives that sustain it. There was one moment when I saw performers removing their makeup late at night after a show, sitting silently in exhaustion, and it completely shifted my understanding.”

Between reality and memory

As the project evolved, Khedekar’s visual language started moving beyond straightforward documentation. Through collage, constructed imagery, and dream-like frames, he began exploring the emotional worlds that exist within the Tamasha tradition.

“But as I continued working on the project, it naturally moved towards something more poetic and dream-like. I wanted to blend reality with memory and imagination because Tamasha itself exists between those worlds. On stage, the performers take on different personas, but off stage, they return to their everyday lives.

As I travelled with them, I started expressing my own perspective and experiences through the photographs. I also began creating collages to deepen that expression, allowing me to capture both the emotional tension and the larger journey,” he shares.

What: Tamasha — A docufiction photography exhibition by Abhishek Rajaram Khedekar
Where: Dilip Piramal Art Gallery
When: On view till June 14, 2026 | 11 am to 7 pm

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