Company

Ajay Chhabra

Artistic Director and co-founder of nutkhut

Ajay Chhabra is an actor, director and producer. His career has spanned film, theatre, television and outdoor performance.

He set up nutkhut in 2003 and with Simmy Gupta, creating the UK’s first Asian stilt-walking performance. 

As Artistic Director of nutkhut (mischievous), he directed The Six Figures of City Hall in Oslo-Norway, directed Diesel Clothing Companies launch collection, and created and conceived ‘movieplex’.

Of Indo - Fijian heritage. Ajay was born in London. He made his debut as an actor in Tamasha's first play Untouchable in 1989 (Riverside Studios) and is familiar to BBC TV audiences as Anil in the children's cult classic, The Basil Brush Show, showing in 15 countries and in six languages.

His two award winning productions Hamari-Kahani and Inner City Lives were both pioneering projects, revealing the harsh realities of two very ordinary groups, one coming to terms with old age, the other of gang murder.

He studied Anthropology at Goldsmiths College, University of London and Hotel Management at Westminster College. He completed an Arts Council Directors Bursary with physical theatre specialist David Glass and was awarded a Circus space Bursary.

Ajay is Artistic Director of the London Mela, the largest celebration of its kind in Europe. He is a board director and trustee of Visiting Arts and founder chair of the European Mela Network.

'Ajay Chhabra provides entertaining foolery as an accident-prone goof'

Jeremy Kingston, The Times