Medai Coimbatore: The latest go-to venue for arts, theatre, and music

An event at Medai, Coimbatore
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

 For anyone following the cultural scene in Chennai, the Tamil word medai carries a lot more significance than its literal meaning, platform. Launched in 2021,Medai pioneered the concept of the black box theatre – a squarish, entirely black space with adjustable seating. Helmed by lighting designer Charles B, the 125-seater became a convergence point for performing arts spanning many genres. About a month ago, Medai opened a new space in Coimbatore, with the inaugural show featuring film critic Baradwaj Rangan. With this new space — his third after Chennai and Bengaluru — Charles is testing the waters in the city.

Sanjay Subrahmanyan at Medai Coimbatore
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Over the phone from Visakhapatnam, where he is busy handling the lighting for a tech show, Charles shares his plans for Coimbatore and what drove him to start his own cultural space. “I’ve made occasional visits to Coimbatore. I could sense there was a vacuum here in terms of cultural experiences outside shopping malls and multiplexes. It was high time the city had a performance space of its own,” Charles said. That is exactly what Medai brings to the city — a professional performance space with built-in, state-of-the-art lighting and sound systems. “Right now, this is something you only get in the metros. We hope to pioneer this trend in Coimbatore,” he adds.

Having leased space at Clusters Media College, Kamaraj Road, Medai’s Coimbatore venue, with a seating capacity of 200, is its biggest yet. Though set within the Clusters campus, Medai functions independently as a cultural space, with Charles calling the shots.

 In its Coimbatore avatar, Medai is taking measured steps to understand the pulse of the local audience. “We’re looking at filling the slots with shows by upcoming artistes as well as the occasional performance by big names.” The shows are also curated according to audience responses. Besides hosting performances by artistes from outside the city, Charles hopes to reach out to local talent as well.

Charles B
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

When he launched for the first time in 2021 in Chennai, it was to address a gap in the city’s cultural scene. “Cultural venues in Chennai often restrict themselves to a particular stream — classical dance and music at the sabhas, modern theatre shows at Alliance Française, and so on. You never had a space that could bring all of these together,” he adds.

He also decided that Medai would be entirely self-funded. This meant renting out the space for workshops and photoshoots during the day and staging shows in the evening. While this deprivedMedaiof big corporate sponsors, it also freed the space from censorship.

It was a gamble that paid off well. Less than two years after he opened Medai in Chennai’s Alwarpet area, Charles took his initiative to Koramangala in Bengaluru, where he repeated his success, thereby proving that cultural entrepreneurship could be a self-sustaining vocation. But when it comes to renting out the space, Charles makes it a point to stick to purely art-related events.

While the Bengaluru and Chennai spaces have shows on four days a week, the Coimbatore space, as of now, features two shows a week during the weekends. “In Bengaluru and Chennai, tickets sell out in no time. There’s always an audience willing to pay for it. Coimbatore, in that sense, is yet to catch up. Even for a show by a reputed artiste like Sanjay Subrahmanyam, we struggled to get past 120 seats.”

Medai
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

However, he’s hopeful that the city will develop a taste for spaces like these in its own sweet time. “As long as you keep putting in the effort, the audience will continue to evolve over a period of time.”

Apart from performances, Charles also hopes to make Medai a space for poetry readings and book launches. With access to a large pool of talent across the country, there is no dearth of ideas for him to choose from, and the presence of a space like this can only enrich the city culturally.

Located inside Clusters Media College, Peelamedu. For details, call 8903550118