It all started three years ago on October 13, the death anniversary of the great Pakistani vocalist, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Pune-based theatre artistes Nachiket Devasthali and Om Bhutkar had been engaging in a literary exchange of Urdu couplets and shayari for quite some time. And they felt the time was right to share their love for the language with more people. So, together with six fellow theatrewallahs who were as much in awe of the zabaan of nazms and shayari, they presented these and other facets of Urdu in an intimate mehfil at a friend's home.

The response they received egged them on to take their initiative to bigger venues. Since its inception, Sukhan (Urdu for speech, language, words, news) has travelled to Delhi, Mumbai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and will head to the US soon. But not before it makes a pit stop in Mumbai for an evening of Hindustani and Sufi music, dastangoi or storytelling, recitation of Urdu prose, and a musical presentation of ghazals, nazms and qawwalis.