Imagine a world where a rakshas or a giant takes all colour from the world. As adults, we would question this fantasy but children’s play director Shaili Sathyu knows that her audience wouldn’t. Sathyu is a theatre veteran and artistic director of Mumbai’s Gillo Repertory Theatre, an organisation working exclusively for children and young people. 

Her new play, titled Rangchor: Ek rakshas ki anokhi kahani, is based on The Colour Thief by Stephen Aitken and Sylvia Sikundar, illustrated by Sandhya Prabhat and published by Tulika Books. In the imaginatively constructed story, a grouchy giant decides to scoop all colour out of the world, but a little girl helps the giant see the world in a completely different light.