For her new production, theatre director Gurleen Judge looked at Franz Kafka's 1922 short story, A Hunger Artist, and today's paper. Kafka's story spoke of a public performer who fasted for 40 days. He was supervised by teams of watchers to ensure he didn't eat in the duration. But, eventually, the public lost interest, and the man shrunk away while no one was watching. Judge read this story a few years ago, and couldn't shake it off. "Striking stories stay in your mind," says Judge. "I was thinking of a new project to work on, and the farmers' long march happened. Everything that I was concerned about for a very long time just came together in this particular piece."

Judge's The Hunger Artist is an episodic production, with actors Mandar Gokhale, Suhel Banerjee and Vikrant Dhote. The three episodes approach hunger from three different perspectives. "The stories don't have a direct relationship, but they're all interlinked," says Judge. "For instance, one of the stories has Irom Sharmila's story. So, it's the story of hunger as protest. Another story is about the mid-day meals, and about the generations of farmers [from one family] that have committed suicide.