Lamakaan () is an open

cultural center A cultural center or cultural centre is an organization, building or complex that promotes culture and arts. Cultural centers can be neighborhood community arts organizations, private facilities, government-sponsored, or activist-run. Africa * ...

Banjara Hills Banjara Hills is an urban commercial centre and one of the most affluent neighbourhoods in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. This is an upmarket locality close to Jubilee Hills. This area was a hilly forest and was least inhabited in the past. Only a ...

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The non-profit organisation provides space for events such as arts, literature, theater, music, and debates.

History

Lamakaan started hosting events in March 2010. It was founded by Ashhar Farhan, Humera Ahmed, Biju Mathew, and

Elahe Hiptoola Elahe Hiptoola is an Indian film producer and former actress. Her credits include producer of ''3 Deewarein'', ''Hyderabad Blues 2'', ''Iqbal'', '' Dor'', and ''Dhanak''. Early life and career Elahe Hiptoola was born in Mumbai and resides in ...

The center

Lamakaan hosts Pecha Kucha, concerts of famous artists like Warsi Brothers, Vittal Rao,

Ateeq Hussain Khan Ustad Ateeq Hussain Khan Bandanawazi Al-Hashmi Qawwal () (born 1980) is an Indian Qawwal. He was born in Hyderabad, India. He started his training in Indian classical music ( Hindustani shastria sangeeth) from his father from the early age o ...

among others. It conducts book releases, plays and seminars. It hosts events like Wikipedia Meetups. Theatre groups have performed at Lamakaan including

Samahaara Samahaara is an Indian theatre group based in Hyderabad. It was founded by two young theatre personalities, the actor-director Rathna Shekar Reddy and the playwright Anjali Parvati Koda. The group began with touring its maiden production, ''T ...

, Sutradhar, Manch Theatre, Nishumbita, Evam, Shudrka, Taher Ali Baig Productions and others.

Closure threat

On 23 December 2015, a notice was issued to Lamakaan by the

GHMC The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is the civic body that oversees Hyderabad, the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It is the local government for the city of Hyderabad. It is one of the largest munici ...

to shut down in three days, citing "creating nuisance to the surrounding residents and general public" as the reason. After notice, Lamakaan gave a reply to the civic body that was 'not satisfactory', to which the civic body responded by issuing a closure notice on 23 December. P. Mahender, the GHMC Deputy Commissioner (Circle 10), when contacted, said that there were traffic problems every Sunday in the lane but did not mention anything about the nuisance. One certain complaint was regarding women smoking on the premises. The notice was withdrawn soon. Due to an uproar in the number of people protesting against shutting down Lamakaan and the signing of around 3,000 people on the online petitioning site change.org demanding the withdrawal of the notice, the attention of then-IT Minister

K. T. Rama Rao Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao (born 24 July 1976), commonly known as KTR, is an Indian politician and Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) of Telangana Legislative Assembly. He is a former Minister for Panchayat Raj, Municipal Administration an ...

was drawn. The issue was resolved after P. Mahender spoke with the owner of the place. The notice did not specify what was the cause of the nuisance but instead talked about the place running without a license. It was decided that the parking space of Jalagam Vengalarao Park would be used for four-wheeler parking.

References

External links

Official site
{{Commons category, Lamakaan Cultural organisations based in India Culture of Hyderabad, India