Kirti Jain

Kirti Jain (born 11 December 1949) is a theatre director from Prayagraj, India. She is a former director of National School of Drama. She received many awards and honors including the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Direction in 2011.

Biography Kirti Jain was born on 11 December 1949 in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, to Nema Chandra Jain, a playwright and writer, and Rekha Jain, a children's playwright.

She completed her M.A. in English literature from Delhi University. She then completed her Diploma in Theatre with specialization in direction from the National School of Drama (1969–1972). She was a member of the editorial board of Studies in Theatre and Performance, a theatre journal published by the University of Exeter, England, and has contributed essays to the Companion to the Indian Theatre and the Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance, published by Oxford University Press.

At National School of Drama Kirti was appointed as an associate professor of Indian Theatre History at the National School of Drama in 1977, later becoming a professor of Modern Indian drama and serving as its director from 1988 to 1995. During this period, she started the National School of Drama's Theatre in Education (TIE) programme to promote children's theatre, Documentation and Publishing programmes, and also established the National School of Drama's Regional Research Centre in Bangalore. Tinka Tinka, a play based on the Gujarat earthquake, was prepared by her with students from NSD, Kaun Thagwa Nagaria Lootal Ho by her is based on a Hindi story by Kashinath Singh. She directed Girish Karnad's Hayavadana with students from Dartington College of Arts in England. She had also directed Mohan Rakesh's Ashadh Ka Ek Din, Lehron Ke Rajhans, and Mahesh Elkunchwar's Holi.

She is the editor of the book Badal Sircar: Search for a Language of Theatre (, Niyogi Books).

Awards and honors In 2010, for her overall contributions in the field of theatre, Kirti received the B. V. Karanth Smrirti Puraskar. She received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Direction in 2011.