The Nut Bolts
Saurabh Pratap Singh is a Mumbai-based theatre producer, actor and production manager whose practice spans independent theatre, collaborative performance-making and artistic production. Associated with Qissa Kothi since its inception in 2016, he has played a central role in producing and managing the collective's theatrical work, facilitating collaborations between artists, performers, technical teams and cultural institutions.
He has produced productions directed by Sharmistha Saha, including Her Letters, Romeo Ravidas aur Juliet Devi, Bundelkhand ki Virgin Machhliyan and The Third Eye (2026), a performed reading of Jyotirao Phule's Trutya Ratna at Studio Tamaasha, Mumbai.
Alongside production, Saurabh works as a performer in Mumbai's independent theatre ecosystem. His acting credits include Hum Bhi Hain, an adaptation of Maxim Gorky's The Lower Depths, directed by Pankaj Purohit.
His production practice involves coordinating artistic teams, managing rehearsals, organising technical and logistical requirements, and supporting the development and presentation of independent performance projects. For M:Other, an international collaboration between Qissa Kothi and Thesmo Kollektiv, Berlin, Saurabh will oversee production management, coordinating the residency, rehearsals, technical arrangements and performances in India and Germany.
Relevant public links: Instagram — @saurabh_prataap
Sharmistha Saha is a Mumbai-based theatre director, filmmaker, performance scholar and educator whose practice spans theatre-making, artistic research, performance historiography and intercultural collaboration. She is the Artistic Director of Qissa Kothi, an independent theatre collective established in 2016, through which she develops performances engaging with questions of identity, social hierarchies, cultural memory and the relationship between aesthetics and politics.
Her directorial works include Her Letters (2014), Romeo Ravidas aur Juliet Devi (2019), Bundelkhand ki Virgin Machhliyan (2018) and The Third Eye (2026), a performed reading of Jyotirao Phule's Trutya Ratna at Studio Tamaasha, Mumbai. She has collaborated with theatre practitioners and institutions in India and internationally, including Odin Teatret in Denmark and Gob Squad, with whom she participated in Elephants in Rooms, presented at the Venice Biennale Theatre in 2024.
In film, she wrote and directed the short films New York, Letters of War (2024), which premiered at the New York Shorts International Film Festival, and Jenga (2020), selected for the Kodak 16mm Analog Film Competition and screened at the Museum of Modern Art, São Paulo, as well as other international film festivals. She trained in filmmaking at Prague Film School and holds a Certificate in Film Appreciation from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). She is currently developing her debut feature film, Frequency of Love.
Her recognitions include the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2022–23), the Asia Art Archive–Inlaks Art Grant (2017–18), and research grants from the Indian Council of Social Science Research and the India Foundation for the Arts. She is the author of Theatre and National Identity in Colonial India (2018) and co-editor of Performance Making and the Archive (2021).
Sharmistha was Assistant Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies at IIT Bombay and has also taught and lectured at New York University, Drama School Mumbai, NMIMS, and other institutions. She holds a PhD in Theatre Studies from Freie Universität Berlin, where she graduated summa cum laude.
Relevant public links: Website — www.sharmisthasaha.com