Is this a play about us?

The play Kuch Toh Gadbad Hai! won nine awards at Thespo 2025

What does it take for a group of young theatre-makers to go from a rehearsal room experiment to winning big at one of India's most respected youth theatre platforms, Thespo? For Kuch Toh Gadbad Hai!, the answer was acknowledging the flaws of a system that often abandons those at the lower rungs of our social order. The play, which picked up nine awards at the Thespo 2025 Awards Ceremony - including Outstanding Director and Outstanding New Writing - is now returning to the stage on April 7 and 8. But long before the recognition, it began as a constantly improving idea.

Writer-director Sarthak Chaskar traces the play's roots back to 2022-23. Inspired by the works of the famous Marathi writer Baburao Bagul, Chaskar wanted to explore characters often left out of mainstream narratives. "He wrote with a human lens, not sympathy," Chaskar says, a philosophy that became central to the play's voice. At its core, Kuch Toh Gadbad Hai! is about identity. The narrative unfolds through two parallel tracks: one following four street children obsessed with crime shows, and another tracing the story of a dead man. The CID-inspired structure, weaving part parody and part commentary, grounds the play in a familiar world while critiquing systems that overlook the underprivileged.

Writer-director Sarthak Chaskar explores questions of identity and belonging of the underprivildged community. PIC/NIMESH DAVE

For actor Tanish Jacob-Rego, the play's structure was as demanding as its themes. "It's an ensemble cast. Everyone plays multiple characters," he explains. In one storyline, he plays a street child who is practical and grounded. His character is caught in a moral dilemma of what defines identity when you have no possessions, no documentation, and no conventional markers of self? This question became the backbone of the rehearsal process. Rather than rushing into staging, the team spent their initial days in discussion, sometimes doing nothing but talking. "We had four or five days where we just sat and thought about the differences and similarities between us and the people we're portraying," Jacob-Rego says. "Do we share the same aspirations?"

That process of unlearning assumptions was crucial. Chaskar emphasises that the biggest challenge wasn't logistical but ethical. "It is very easy to assume stereotypes about a community without proper research. We wanted everything to be honest and authentic," he says.

Tanish Jacob-Rego

Authenticity required time, and time required trust. The core team - Chaskar, Jacob-Rego, and collaborator Sakshi - rebuilt the play through research and collective input. Character work was never "finished"; it evolved continuously. Even now, Jacob-Rego admits he hasn't fully "grasped" his character. "You keep building on it. I don't think I've reached that point of satisfaction."

The collaborative nature of the production extended far beyond performance. Like many independent theatre groups, they faced familiar hurdles involving lack of funds, limited rehearsal spaces, and the constant struggle of managing logistics. But instead of dividing roles rigidly, the team shared responsibilities. Actors doubled up as producers, designers, and marketers. "We had to make our own systems of working," Jacob-Rego says. "From handling finances to building sets to creating publicity it was all us." This sense of ownership, he adds, was both daunting and empowering. It turned the production into a lesson in independence and responsibility.

Sarthak Chaskar

Chaskar, too, grappled with the weight of authorship. Writing about marginalised communities meant navigating political and ideological questions. "I was hesitant about certain aspects. What I could or couldn't say," he admits. "But at some point, I decided to stand by what I know and believe." Even then, ensuring that actors understood and were comfortable with these perspectives required ongoing dialogue. The result is a play that is rooted in portraying what the common public often sees, but never notices. Its humour, rooted in the exaggerated world of CID-style investigations, draws audiences in, only to confront them with deeper questions about privilege, visibility, and identity.

"We chose to narrate the story in CID-style since it best connects with children. Initially I thought of chor police. It is a comment on our security department which ignores the community of the underprivileged," Chaskar explains. In many ways, Kuch Toh Gadbad Hai! embodies the very uncertainty it explores. Built without institutional backing and carried forward by a group of young artists wearing multiple hats, it stands as a reminder of what contemporary youth theatre can achieve.