Among the myriad female characters in Indian mythology, it may not be wrong to say that Shoorpanakha is one of the least-known. Ravana's sister, she offered herself to Rama and then Lakshmana during their exile, and invited the wrath of the latter, who cut off her nose and left ear — that's her story in a nutshell for most.

But for Bengaluru-based actor, writer and theatre worker Sunitha MR, the episode from the Ramayana "seems to capture, in an archetypal way, the male response to strong women today." In 2012, Bengaluru had seen a spate of attacks on women in "western clothes", and the memories of the Pink Chaddi campaign were fresh, too. It was in this context that the artiste started examining questions around the female body. "I was also looking at female desire... female sexuality and violence. The idea that an Indian woman is a de-sexualised, devotional, fully-clad woman who only has conjugal sex... I wanted to respond to all of it," she adds.