Sisterhood, stories, and the search for truth, ft. Team Something Like Truth

Last Sunday was a special day for the team of Something Like Truth. The women-led play was being staged on International Women’s Day in a city where it took shape. As the audience watched the Parna Pethe directorial, written by Shanta Gokhale, one question popped up - what exactly is truth?

Through the voices of its four characters – played by Ashwini Giri, Sharvari Deshpande, Dusha Madhav and Kalyanee Mulay, the play moves through memories, relationships and moments from the past, revealing how the same incident can live differently in different people’s minds. As each character recalls their version of events, facts and feelings begin to blend, leaving the audience thinking that truth may not always be as static as it seems.

Characters and complicated realities

When the actors talk about building characters, the discussion often shifts to empathy, to understanding lives that may feel far removed from your own, and to the emotional labour of carrying those stories on stage. That was the main theme of a conversation with the women of Something Like Truth, who have inhabited these characters shaped by complicated social realities. For Parna, the project also meant an official directorial debut on a professional stage. “As an actor you are focused on your own role, but as a director, you kind of get a bird’s eye view. It’s a position of responsibility, and an exciting one.”

While the stories revolve around women’s lives, Parna insists on not limiting them to that label. She shares, “Sometimes when people hear that a play is about women or made by women, they assume it’s meant only for women. But we look at it as a humanist story. These may be women’s experiences, but they are stories anyone can connect with.”

Carrying the weight of real stories

Most of the cast felt the emotional intensity of the material becoming clear very early in the process. “My character comes from a very different time,” says actress Ashwini Giri, adding, “When you approach these stories, they can feel quite frightening as a fellow human.”

As rehearsals progressed and research deepened, she says that emotional connection grew stronger. “When you start empathising more deeply and experiencing what the character might have gone through, the story becomes emotionally more relevant and heavier.”

Searching for connection

"My character in the play is nowhere close to what I am in real life,” says Sharvari, for whom the breakthrough came with something universal. “Funnily enough, the search for similarity ended with love and connection. Whatever we do in this world, whether it’s for power, survival, or anything else, often comes from a need for connection.” That idea of shared empathy also shaped the conversations around other characters.

Dusha adds, “The larger idea behind the work repeatedly brings me back to a simple question - are people willing to understand each other beyond labels? People are often far more complex than the boxes society places them in.” Elaborating on the questions of identity and expectation, Kalyanee shares, “Society often tells you what you should be, where you should stand, and how you should behave. But somewhere within that there is your own voice, your choices – that creates your identity.”