Direct shoot and cormlet regeneration from leaf explants were obtained in triploid dessert banana cultivar Nanjanagud Rasabale (NR) that is classified under the group ‘Silk’ and has the genotype AAB. The response for both cormlet and direct shoot formation was observed only in leaf explants obtained from shoots cultured in liquid medium but not in similar explants obtained from shoots grown on gelled medium. Shoot initiation occurred after a sequential culture of leaf (sheath) explants on modified Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with different growth regulators. In the sequence, the leaf explants were cultured first on medium with a high level (22.4 μM) of benzyladenine (BA), second on indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) supplemented medium, and third on reduced BA medium under incubation in the dark. The highest adventitious shoot regeneration in 24% of the explants, with the number of shoots ranging from 2 to 3 per explant, occurred in the explants incubated at the first step in medium with 22.4 and 0.198 μM IBA. Further growth and complete shoot formation occurred under incubation in a 16-h photoperiod. While keeping the culture conditions constant and replacing BA with picloram (0.83–20.71 μM) in the initial step, adventitious origin of cormlets occurred in 12% of the explants. However, when rhizome explants (also obtained from shoots grown in liquid medium) were cultured with various growth regulators in the first step, medium containing 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (7.82 μM) produced friable callus that re-differentiated into roots only. Physical forms of the medium, i.e. agar-gelled or liquid, imparted specific effects on the extent of multiplication of leaf-regenerated shoots with no differences in morphology and growth patterns when compared to those of meristem-derived plants.