In the year 1853 the Parsi Dramatic Corp’ staged a play named Rustam Zabuli and Zohrab at the Grant Road
Theatre in Bombay. It was an adaptation of the 10th century Persian epic Shahnameh, a tragic story of the heroes, Rustam and his son, Sohrab, by the Persian poet Ferdowsi. This marked the beginning of Parsi theatre in the city, which went on to have a great impact in the field of entertainment, including the Hindi film
industry.

The staging of this play had occurred nearly 70 years after the first theatre had made its appearance in the city. However, in the intervening period, things had happened which gave impetus to the Parsi community in Bombay to make a foray into this area.

Bombay had seen periodic performances by European production houses at Bombay Theatre, the first theatre
to come up in 1776, in the Bombay Green area. While this theatre had been supported by Mountstuart Elphinstone (the Governor of Bombay), it went into a debt after Elphinstone’s departure. Things went downhill to such an extent that in 1834 it was proposed in a significant meeting of government officials that if the theatre continued to generate losses, it would be
converted into a clubhouse.

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