Pune, 20 June 2025: The lack of timely availability of auditoriums for plays and cultural events has long been a concern for theatre artists in Pune. To address this, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) began constructing the Late Balasaheb Thackeray Bal Natya Gruha next to the Yashwantrao Chavan Auditorium in Kothrud back in March 2015.

The project includes a parking facility, podium, office space, a 385-seat children’s auditorium, and an art gallery named after Balasaheb Thackeray. Despite a hefty expenditure of ₹29 crore over ten years, many works remain incomplete.

Key pending works include installing lifts, furnishing artists’ rooms, electrical fittings, setting up the main stage curtain, and completing decorative panels and murals on the podium. Final painting, electrification near Thackeray’s half-figure statue, and completion of the art gallery on the first floor are also unfinished.

Meanwhile, the incomplete parking lot has turned into a neglected spot, littered with liquor bottles, stagnant water, dust-covered CCTV cameras, and debris scattered around.

PMC officials now claim the pending work will be completed by December this year. However, artists express deep disappointment, warning that if the Bal Natya Gruha is not ready by Ganeshotsav, they will launch a protest.

“The Yashwantrao Chavan Auditorium is overburdened. If the new auditorium opens, it will ease this load. If not operational before Ganesh festival, we, the artists, will go on a hunger strike,” said Sunil Mahajan, President of the Kothrud Natya Parishad.

In the last three months alone, the Yashwantrao Chavan Auditorium hosted 79 events in March, 74 in April, and 82 in May, highlighting the urgent need for additional performance spaces in the city.