In conversation: Anamika Haksar with Sreenath Nair

The speaker emphasizes that each theatrical production demands its own unique method, shaped by the text’s themes and context. Rejecting a fixed approach, Haksar design actor-training exercises specific to each play to explore the language, body, memory and space. Through examples from her productions such as Raj Darpan, Hooriya, Uchakka and Antaryatra, Haksar demonstrates how linguistic, social and physical dimensions inform performance. Their practice integrates diverse techniques from colonial language studies to bodily discipline and ritual movements constantly redefining stage space and dramaturgy. Ultimately, Haksar emphasized that the method of production practice emerges organically in each directorial project in which each actor’s process becoming an embodied exploration of experience and meaning. Making a clear connection between politics and theatre, Haksar explains their use of multiple Buddha images to explore the idea of struggle, compassion and social decay. Rejecting the conventional image of a serene Buddha, she focuses on the emaciated, pre-enlightenment figure of Buddha, a symbol of questioning and deprivation. In the production Water, four Buddha forms are used: the emaciated Buddha (struggle), Anantashayanam (silent observer), the balloon Buddha (a commodified, deflating spiritual ideal) and the young Buddha (seeker of light). Drawing inspiration from Namdeo Dhasal’s poetry on scarcity and suffering, the work portrays the Buddha as a witness to society’s pain, whose compassion endures but whose message is increasingly unheard.