A group of young theatre students of Drama department – Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya, the only degree college of performing arts in the state of Orissa, started doing theatre under the guidance of Subodh . The organisation got established after performing  a play ‘Bana Manisha’ (Wild men). It was in  a slum of Bhubaneswar during  a NSS (National Service Scheme) camp. This play provoked the audiences to think about the subject instead of enjoying the form.  The role of PRIA ( Participatory Research In Asia) training about “participatory training method” and “organisational management”, PETA (Philippines Educational Theatre Association) about working with non-artist and Sri Badal Sircar’s training to make theatre for the mass and not for a class opened the eyes during 1987-1991. This triggered Subodh to think about a mission and Natya Chetana.

In the field of theatre art there were debates going on and serious efforts made to come out of the influences of British theatre form of projecting the modern theatre. A lot of thoughts and applications have been attempted taking inspiration from Traditional/Folk Indian Theatre and from the Natya Shastra (the only complete theatre theory book written in 3rd Century BC to guide the Classical Indian Theatre). One can observe the Indian theatre practices continuing in a large scale in the villages having indigenous forms. It came to notice that, at the village level social activists were running regular activities sincerely to come up with a change in peoples’ mind and choices of life. The choice of ‘subject’ for a drama is a political angle of the process as long as theatre influences the mind and values are created when the antagonist is defeated by protagonist at the end.

So Natya Chetana came into being to develop a pro-people Modern Indian Theatre form carrying pro-people theme to sensitise the audiences to start thinking for addressing their own problems.