It took a minute of warm applause for their nerves to finally settle and they were all smiles. Having travelled by bus and train for over 40 hours, this team of young student-actors and musicians from Kathmandu had worked hard for this moment, looking forward to it with nervous excitement. They had just performed their play ‘Katha Kasturi’ as part of the Bharat Rang Mahotsav, the world’s biggest theatre festival, in New Delhi.

Organised annually by the National School of Drama (NSD), the festival’s silver jubilee edition was themed ‘Ek Rang, Shrestha Rang’—one expression, supreme creation. The festival, which concluded last week, saw over 200 productions from around the world. The Kathmandu-based theatre institute Actors’ Studio’s ‘Katha Kasturi’, featuring the student-actors from the group’s 26th batch, was one of them. (Two other Nepali productions—Aarohan Gurukul’s ‘Gachhami’ and Aesthetic Dance Studio’s ‘Joon’—were also staged at the festival.) While the festival was organised across 13 cities—including Kathmandu and Colombo—the NSD remained its nerve centre.

The NSD is a mecca for theatre artists and enthusiasts across the subcontinent, if not the world. It is in this school’s auditoriums that some of the most accomplished actors from the subcontinent, including Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Piyush Mishra, Irrfan Khan, Seema Biswas and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, honed their craft and went on to enthral audiences worldwide. A degree from the NSD has come to become a status symbol, one that makes wide-eyed aspirers look up to the graduates with awe and admiration. From Nepal, at least three actors-directors—Sunil Pokharel, Anup Baral and Bimal Subedi—have had the privilege of studying there. So when I was offered to travel to the institute with the cast and crew of ‘Katha Kasturi’—produced by Baral’s Actors’ Studio—I jumped at the chance to witness the performance by the budding actors up close.

‘Katha Kasturi’, adapted from the short story ‘Sarpadansha’ by Nayanraj Pandey and directed by Deeya Maskey, is set in Jaipun, a village in the Madhesh region inhabited by the Saperas, a marginalised community of snake charmers. The Saperas, numbering around 700, survive by hypnotising their snakes. Politicians exploit this community as a vote bank. And this provides the central conflict of the play. It’s a story of how marginalised communities are often reduced to mere tools for political gain. It’s also a tale of love, betrayal, victory, and comeuppance, all framed within the context of political machinations.

Pandey’s story is marked by linguistic finesse and simplicity, which director Maskey enhances with well-choreographed movements, making the play visually captivating. While the original story is written in Nepali, Maskey integrates a blend of Nepali and Awadhi to give the play a more authentic feel. The actors excelled in their respective roles, making it easy to forget that this is, in fact, a student production. The music, blending Nepali and Jaipuri elements—a nod to the Saperas’ migration history—complemented the narrative’s mood.

This is a story about a failed system and how politicians exploit marginalised communities for political gain, resorting to unconscionable violence to maintain control. Unfortunately, this theme resonates with many Nepalis. As such, the play serves as an apt representation of Nepal on the global stage.

The political themes explored in the play also reflect the challenges Nepal’s arts and culture sector faces due to lack of state support. This is why it was hard not to feel envious of NSD’s infrastructure that provides a conducive environment for creative spirits to flourish. Long before India became a significant geopolitical force, it was globally renowned for its films and music. And NSD is a microcosm of that cultural legacy.

Besides a handful of auditoriums, including open-air theatres, its premises are adorned with posters and images of plays dating back to the 1960s, showcasing its rich history and legacy. These images capture actors in the throes of dramatic action—expressing love, despair, kindness, cruelty, euphoria, and misery, a full spectrum of human emotion. It was hard not to feel inspired by these images.

As the curtain fell and the final applause reverberated through the auditorium, the young actors from Kathmandu stood humbled and exhilarated. Their journey, a testament to their hard work and passion, had brought them to the heart of India’s theatrical legacy. The National School of Drama, with its history of nurturing some of the subcontinent’s most iconic performers, had provided a stage not just for their art, but for their dreams. Their journey might have only begun, but in that moment, it was clear—their dreams had found a stage worthy of them.

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Katha Kasturi

Writer: Nayanraj Pandey

Director: Deeya Maskey

Cast: Bhagawati Gharti, Shristi Bhattarai, Bikash Khadka, Jiban Gautam, Rajan Puri, etc.