What does it take for a group of young theatre-makers to go from a rehearsal room experiment to winning big at one of India’s most respected youth theatre platforms, Thespo? For Kuch Toh Gadbad Hai!, the answer was acknowledging the flaws of a system that often abandons those at the lower rungs of our social order. The play, which picked up nine awards at the Thespo 2025 Awards Ceremony — including Outstanding Director and Outstanding New Writing — is now returning to the stage on April 7 and 8. But long before the recognition, it began as a constantly improving idea.

Writer-director Sarthak Chaskar traces the play’s roots back to 2022–23. Inspired by the works of the famous Marathi writer Baburao Bagul, Chaskar wanted to explore characters often left out of mainstream narratives. “He wrote with a human lens, not sympathy,” Chaskar says, a philosophy that became central to the play’s voice. At its core, Kuch Toh Gadbad Hai! is about identity. The narrative unfolds through two parallel tracks: one following four street children obsessed with crime shows, and another tracing the story of a dead man. The CID-inspired structure, weaving part parody and part commentary, grounds the play in a familiar world while critiquing systems that overlook the underprivileged.