Bengaluru

The Bengaluru scene

Public rope teaching in Bengaluru is recent, and almost all of what is documented comes from one project. Before it, the city already had kink community gatherings: a 2025 profile in The Nod says that Amiya Bhanushali, a Mumbai-based artist, took her rope practice further in 2022 through online resources and through in-person events, among them kink community gatherings in Mumbai and Bengaluru. She launched Silly Hands Shibari in 2024, has taught workshops in Gurgaon, Bengaluru and Hyderabad as well as Mumbai, and runs a community chat group of about 250 members on gear, negotiation and safe practice. How rope reached India and the rest of Asia is told in Kinbaku in Asia-Pacific.

One project, several formats

Silly Hands Shibari sells its events through the booking platform Urbanaut, where it bills itself as queer-led and dedicated to rope alone. Its Bengaluru program has grown in steps. In June 2025 it held a two-hour partnered workshop for couples in Koramangala, which it called its first in-person workshop of that kind in Bangalore after sold-out workshops elsewhere in India; the listing describes an alcohol-free, beginner-friendly session in an LGBTQ+ space where allies are welcome. In September 2025 it held a community rope jam at a studio in Koramangala, which the listing describes as open, unstructured practice time without formal teaching, with impact play as an optional extra. In March 2026 a two-hour workshop focused on the futomomo, taught as a self-tie so that participants build confidence before tying someone else, and open to all levels from 21 years up.

Rope also appears as a subject for artists. Dirty Drawers is a clothed life-drawing morning built around shibari, which its organizers describe as a bi-monthly gathering for experienced artists and casual sketchers alike; its fourth edition took place in Bengaluru in April 2026.

How the teaching is framed

Bhanushali’s event pages differ on when she started, giving 2021 on one listing and 2022 on another; they say shibari began as an extension of her art and her research into kink practices, and that her style came to connect with her queer identity, trauma and neurodivergence. The Nod reports that she treats her practice as not sexual, describing it as a space for somatic, therapeutic and artistic exploration, and that she wants it to be open and safe for LGBTQ+ people, people of every body size, disabled people and neurodivergent people.

Finding your way in

The project’s listings are in English. Some listings share the venue only after booking. For the difference between a jam and a class, see Rope jams, munches and salons, and for advice on joining rope events in another city, see Rope when you travel.