Kancharapalem is a locality situated in the old core area of Visakhapatnam, Andhra
Pradesh. For nearly a century, Kancharapalem was a culturally thriving residential
locality with artists and professionals involved in the drama industry. However, now,
Kancharapalem is mere ruins of its initial glory and often makes headlines only for its
antisocial activities. Advent of movies and ‘web-based’ entertainment has taken away
the glory of drama and made the people of Kancharapalem suffer. The artists were
forced to change profession or embrace the wrong paths for earning daily livelihood.
After getting the Central Smart City status, public administrators of Visakhapatnam are
focusing on “Smart Infrastructure” and “ICT” and are likely to ignore the rich past of this
decaying Kancharapalem making its past glory disappear in a decade or so. The aim of
this research is to identify the strategies which would help revive the degraded “drama-
focused” cultural significance of Kancharapalem through architectural interventions;
involving urban planning based surveys and analysis.