Prakriti Foundation was founded by Ranvir Shah in Chennai in 1998 to host events enquiring into our cultural heritage and inheritance. The vision behind Prakriti was to host events that would play a catalytic role in changing and enlarging the cultural scene in Chennai. Thus, Prakriti Foundation saw itself typically as the moving force behind events as diverse as  music concerts, seminars and serious scholarly discourse, multi media events, experimental and protest cinema  and theatre festivals.

In the last nine years, Prakriti Foundation has worked to explore identity through history and heritage, art and cultural expression. In a city accustomed to a regular diet of classical performance, Prakriti has been the space where scholars, researchers, artists, critics, poets and filmmakers have been able to present their work to those who engage with it on serious terms. Our lecture demonstrations, poetry readings, film screenings and intimate performances continue to dot the Chennai calendar.