Cast of Ek Machine Kabadi Ki, a Hindi-language comedy centered on a scrap dealer (kabadi) whose discovery of a mysterious machine disrupts everyday life. The device alters the form of objects placed inside it, a seemingly harmless function that takes on unexpected consequences when it is revealed to affect human beings as well. The narrative turns when the protagonist unknowingly activates the machine while his wife is inside, causing her to reappear significantly younger. This transformation generates confusion and escalating comic tension as the family attempts to navigate the altered reality. Through its absurd premise, the play engages themes of identity, aging, and the instability of control within domestic space.Written by S. N. Nautiyal and staged at the Historic Hoover Theatre, the production reflects Desi Theatre’s focus on Hindi-language comedy that combines imaginative scenarios with familiar social settings, supported by English supertitles for broader audience accessibility.
Members of Desi Theatre’s core team pose together, reflecting the company's collaborative foundation since its establishment in 2023. Pictured here(starting third from left) are Poonam Singh, Ajitesh Gupta, Aditi Honawar, and Puneet Goyal, among the active founding members who continue to shape the organization’s artistic and community direction.
Cast members of Gadhe Ki Baraat, a Hindi-language comedy featuring a large ensemble and incorporating dance and theatrical spectacle. Presented in November 2025, the production reflects Desi Theatre’s expansion into larger-scale staging with multiple performers and integrated performance elements.The narrative follows a potter who lives with his wife and earns a living transporting goods on his donkeys. After praying to be taken as a divine disciple and requesting entry into heaven, he offends celestial order and is transformed into a donkey. He can only regain human form by fulfilling an improbable condition: marrying a princess.Blending humor with elements of folklore and fantasy, the production exemplifies Desi Theatre’s approach to accessible, community-centered storytelling. The scale of the cast and staging highlights the group’s emphasis on collective participation and audience engagement within Silicon Valley’s South Asian theater landscape.
Scene from Jollywood, Desi Theatre’s third production, adapted for the stage from the Bengali film Bhooter Bhabishyat. The play centers on a film director and crew who arrive at an old house to shoot a movie, only to discover that the space is inhabited by ghosts. As tensions escalate, the supernatural inhabitants confront and threaten the filmmakers, creating a narrative that blends comedy with elements of horror and satire.The staging translates a cinematic narrative into live performance, incorporating theatrical set design to evoke both the film set and the haunted environment. Through humor and genre blending, the production reflects Desi Theatre’s interest in adapting popular South Asian media into accessible, community-oriented theater within Silicon Valley.
Scene from Kayapalat, Desi Theatre’s debut production, presented in November 2023. The play centers on two friends, a scientist and an artist, whose lives intersect through an experimental invention. The scientist creates a device in the form of a wearable hat, the effects of which are initially unknown. When tested, the machine unexpectedly causes the two individuals to exchange personalities, disrupting their identities and relationships. The narrative further complicates when a thief steals the device, introducing additional layers of confusion and comedic tension.
Scene from Taj Mahal Ka Udghatan, Desi Theatre’s second production, presented in early 2024. The play reimagines the construction of the Taj Mahal within a mid-20th-century administrative setting.The narrative centers on a tendering process to build the monument, in which politicians, businessmen, and other stakeholders become involved in decision-making. As discussions and negotiations continue, the project remains at the proposal and documentation stage, not yet realized in physical form.
Dial M for Murder is a classic suspense thriller centered on a meticulously planned plot to murder a wife for financial gain. As the plan begins to unravel, the narrative shifts into a tense investigation of deception, manipulation, and shifting power within intimate relationships. Known for its tightly constructed plot and psychological intensity, the play builds suspense through dialogue, timing, and confined domestic space.
Screenshot of the Diya TV online streaming interface, showing live and on-demand programming available through the Diya TV website. Diya TV is a South Asian American television network serving audiences across the United States with news, cultural programming, entertainment, and community-focused content. The screenshot illustrates the platform through which viewers access South Asian media digitally.
A promotional trailer for Diya TV, America’s first 24/7 South Asian broadcast television network, showcasing its multilingual news and entertainment programming in English, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu, Marathi and Bengali.
This Scroll.in article by Anahita Mukherji examines how domestic violence affects Indians working in Silicon Valley, showing how cultural, technological and professional pressures intersect in the South Asian diaspora
Don’t Worry, Be Happy explores contemporary marriage through the lens of emotional misalignment, economic uncertainty, and unspoken vulnerability. The play centers on a young couple navigating professional instability and the pressures of parenthood. As the wife confronts gynecological health challenges that complicate their ability to have children, deeper fractures emerge in communication and empathy. Feeling unseen and misunderstood, she ultimately chooses independence over quiet resignation. The couple separates, and she redefines her life through travel, trekking, and social engagement, affirming personal fulfillment beyond conventional expectations.
Resonating strongly with younger audiences, the production reflects a generational shift in how Marathi theater addresses marriage, autonomy, and women’s agency.
The Dutar is a traditional folk instrument, a long-necked two-stringed lute found in Iran, Turkmenistan, and Central Asia. Its name comes from the Persian word for "two strings", do tār, although the Herati dutar of Afghanistan has fourteen strings. (Source: Wikpedia)
Three scans documenting a Times Journal feature by Jon Bashor about India-West. The article profiles founders Ramesh and Bina Murarka, the paper's production in El Sobrante, its Indian American readership, and its growth from a part-time venture into a weekly newspaper. Photographs are credited to Michael A. Jones.
The Ektara is a one-stringed instrument with a body often made from a gourd or coconut. The Ektara is used in the Hindu practice of Kirtan chanting, and was traditionally played by by wandering folk singers.
Promotional poster for EnActe Arts’ production of Chitra: The Warrior Princess, Rabindranath Tagore’s lyrical retelling of the Mahabharata story of Chitrangada. The play reimagines the warrior princess who questions conventional femininity, desire, and selfhood. Under the direction of Ranjita Chakravarty, the production foregrounded themes of gender fluidity, agency, and inner transformation, situating Tagore’s early twentieth-century feminist vision within contemporary diasporic discourse. The visual motif of multiple faces reflects the central tension between appearance and authenticity that defines Chitra’s journey.
Ranjita Chakravarty plays Tooranpoi the Malyalee Clown in EnActe Arts’ Bay Area production of Merchant on Venice, Shishir Kurup’s contemporary reimagining of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. Set in Venice Beach, California, the adaptation reframes the original through a multicultural, diasporic lens, blending Shakespearean verse with South Asian and American cultural references.
Noor dramatizes the political struggles of the Mughal court during the reign of Emperor Jahangir. The play centers on Mehrunissa Begum, later known as Noor Jehan, and the power negotiations among emperors, princes, Rajahs, and court factions. Ranjita Chakravarty portrays Ruqqaiya Begum, a senior royal figure and mentor within the imperial household.
