Rajeshwari Sachdev (right) in a scene from Gauhar Jaan; (below) Lillete Dubey, director

As the 25th year of Lillete Dubey’s Prime Time Theatre Company draws to a close, it’s curtain call for their iconic play Gauhar Jaan, which will be staged for the last time in the city next Sunday. Based on Mahesh Dattani’s adaptation of Vikram Sampath’s book My Name Is Gauhar Jaan, the play tells the story of the legendary classical singer, of Indo-Armenian origin, who was the first in India to record her songs on the gramophone in 1902. It’s a story Dubey deemed important to pull out from the annals of history. “The best thing for me is that I am my own director, producer. Everyone told me nobody would be interested in the life of an old thumri singer. But I went with my gut,” she says. Ask her what does she look for in a story and she says, “I’m very restless as an artiste, and I need to be doing something completely different from my last work. What hooks me in any story are the emotions, because that is what stays. And, I want my audience to pick that up,” she says.