DILIP GUHA, NEW DELHI : Aadyam Theatre returned with its eighth season this year, marking a significant first—the season opened in Delhi with the premiere of Ankahi, its debut venture into the supernatural thriller genre. Staged at Kamani Auditorium on 28th and 29th March 2026, the production set an ambitious and unexpected tone before embarking on its multi-city tour.
Directed by Vikranth Pawar, Ankahi is a Hindi adaptation of Susan Hill’s iconic The Woman in Black, originally adapted for the stage by Stephen Mallatratt and celebrated for its long-running success in London’s West End. Translating such a globally recognised work into an Indian theatrical context is no small feat, and Ankahi approaches this challenge with both reverence and reinvention.
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For over a decade, Aadyam Theatre has cultivated a repertoire grounded in artistic integrity—championing innovation, reinterpreting contemporary texts, and fostering theatre that feels both rigorous and relevant. Its previous season alone drew over 25,000 attendees, underscoring a growing appetite among Indian audiences for bold, authentic storytelling. With stalwarts like Sunil Shanbag, Atul Kumar, Nadir Khan, and Purva Naresh shaping its creative vision—and performers such as Kumud Mishra, Akash Khurana, and Girija Oak Godbole commanding its stage—the platform has consistently showcased some of the finest talents in Indian theatre. Yet, what distinguishes Aadyam most is its sustained commitment to nurturing emerging voices while pushing into uncharted territory—most notably now, with its foray into the supernatural.
At its core, Ankahi is a tightly woven 90-minute psychological thriller that thrives on the immediacy of live performance. Unlike cinematic horror, theatre offers no cuts, no background score to cushion the experience—only raw tension unfolding in real time. The production leans fully into this vulnerability, blurring the line between performance and reality through a compelling play-within-a-play structure.
The narrative follows Sandeepan Chauhan, a middle-aged lawyer burdened by a haunting secret. Unable to articulate his past, he enlists a young, sceptical actor to stage his experience. What begins as a controlled retelling soon spirals into something far more unsettling. As Chauhan revisits a seemingly routine legal assignment involving the estate of Fatima Ilyas in the eerie landscape of the Sundarbans, the story morphs into a chilling confrontation with memory, guilt, and the supernatural.
Gopal Datt delivers a deeply internalised performance as Chauhan, capturing the character’s psychological weight through restraint and nuance. His portrayal conveys a man teetering on the edge, haunted not just by ghosts but by the burden of unspoken truth. Opposite him, Rohit Chaudhary brings a compelling arc to the young actor—transitioning seamlessly from skepticism to palpable fear as he becomes entangled in Chauhan’s narrative. The chemistry between the two is electric, anchoring the production and making its descent into horror feel disturbingly real.
What elevates Ankahi further is its technical precision. The lighting design plays a crucial role in shaping the atmosphere—casting looming shadows that dwarf the actors and suggest an unseen presence just beyond perception. A particularly striking sequence involving candlelight transforms the stage into a liminal space where reality feels porous and unstable. The set design fluidly navigates between past and present, reinforcing the play’s central tension between memory and performance.
The sound design, too, is integral—evoking not just physical spaces but the intangible dread that permeates them. It subtly amplifies the psychological terror without overwhelming the live experience, allowing silence and suggestion to do much of the work.
That said, while the production’s design and performances admirably strive to sustain an atmosphere of fear and foreboding, there are moments where the pacing slightly undercuts the tension. Yet, under Pawar’s direction, these elements coalesce into a narrative that remains gripping, atmospheric, and emotionally resonant.
Beyond its immediate impact, Ankahi signals a broader shift for Aadyam Theatre. By embracing the supernatural—a genre rarely explored with such seriousness on the Indian stage—it expands the possibilities of what contemporary theatre can achieve. It asks a haunting question that lingers long after the curtains fall: Does confronting our darkest truths lead us toward light, or deeper into darkness?
With this bold and immersive opener, Aadyam Theatre’s Season 8 begins not just on a note of ambition, but with a quiet, unsettling promise—that the stories we fear the most are often the ones closest to home.
Artistic Directors Nadir Khan and Akarsh Khurana were joined by Shernaz Patel and Ipshita Singh Chakraborty shouldered the monumental task of curating the plays for the season.
Talking about his experience through the years, Akarsh Khurana, Artistic Director of Aadyam Theatre, added, “I’ve been involved with Aadyam since the beginning in some capacity or another. I have written, directed, and produced plays across seven seasons. I’ve also been an audience member, lighting operator, and podcast host, on occasion. This is the first time on the other side, where I get to be involved more intrinsically – selecting the plays, guiding the theatre makers, and facilitating all the exciting off stage initiatives. Aadyam has been a wonderfully encouraging platform for Indian theatre, and it is quite a privilege to be able to represent it. We’re starting the latest iteration with a new genre. Ankahi, an Indian adaptation of the frightening classic The Woman in Black, is a psychological thriller with supernatural overtones, which promises to be an eerily immersive experience. And we can’t wait to see how audiences react to it.”
Vikranth Pawar, Director of Ankahi, said, “Ankahi – The untold story of The Woman in Black is 90 minutes of pure drama and thrill on stage. This genre of supernatural thriller is a whole different experience in the live medium of theatre. The scares are that much more real; the spook is that much more eerie, and the drama is that much more tense. The play is truly what theatre has to offer in its raw and unbound form, where the Ankahi story of The Woman in Black doesn’t just unfold on stage, it does even in your imagination.”
Nadir Khan, Artistic Director of Aadyam Theatre, shared his thoughts, saying, “I’m very pleased to extend my association as Artistic Director for another season of Aadyam Theatre. Aadyam continues to be an extremely valuable part of our theatrical landscape, and the continued commitment and support by Mr. Birla and the Aditya Birla Group to facilitate this wonderful opportunity for theatre practitioners and audiences alike cannot be underestimated.
The programming for the new season was conducted by a curation panel and received over 50 proposals from across the country in a very short period of time. We are consistently encouraged by the theatre community’s enthusiasm and support for this very important initiative.
Our first production is a supernatural thriller directed by Vikranth Pawar – Ankahi. With Vikranth’s experience of creating large-scale and immersive productions, this promises to be a very exciting and innovative start to this season of Aadyam Theatre.”
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