Meet our young writer: Rohini Sattanathan

Rohini Sattanathan

When I first heard about this play, it captured my interest because the story seemed to have so much room to explore several themes and unique character dynamics. I found it so interesting that I once said, months before I even knew BADCo would be staging the play again, that if there was ever going to be an adaptation of the play, I would have liked to write it. Later, when I was asked by my dad to adapt the play to English, I was excited at the prospect of experimenting with the creative elements present in the story. As I went through the process of adapting the play, my favorite aspects of it were the dynamic between the main characters, a writer and his mental voice, to which I could apply my own personal experiences as well as expand on the possibilities that emerged from the relationship between the two sides of the human conscience. In the original play, I loved the dialogue between these characters and how they tackled the philosophy behind the unique intersection of an artist’s creativity and the meaning of love. As I was writing the adaptation, I had the opportunity to expand on these themes as well as tie them to my own perspective on the relationship between love, art, and personal identity and fulfillment.

However, none of this would have been possible without the support of many other people, including BADCo which gave me, a teenager, the opportunity to adapt this play, and Mani Ram, the original writer who gave me full freedom to exercise my creativity in the English adaptation. Thanks to them, I was able to bring to life my own vision of the story that put a unique spin on the core themes of the play.

– Rohini Sattanathan