The first time that Jay Soni, Cheshta Bhagat and Pritam Singh — the three protagonists of a new play called Blind Date — experienced lights blacking out on stage during rehearsals, they felt completely lost. “Sir, kya karu, kuchh dikhai nahi de raha hai!” they shouted out to director Prasad Khandekar, since being in total darkness while acting was alien territory for the three TV actors, who are making their theatre debut.

But little did the trio know that it was Khandekar himself who'd asked for all the lights to be suddenly switched off. The reason is simple — the director was throwing them in the deep end to figure out how different the stage is from acting on TV shows. There are intervals between scenes, for example, when you're robbed of your vision. You also have to project your voice to the last person in the audience, sans the help of sound amplifiers. “And you don't have the luxury of retakes, all of which makes theatre a different beast from television,” Khandekar reveals.