A first–year health studies student from Leicester’s De Montfort University has flown to India to work on a play being developed by the city’s Curve theatre.
Fatima Mohammed will join Curve associate director Suba Das and associate artist Aakash Odedra as the theatre adapts Amana Fontanella-Khan’s Pink Sari Revolution: A Tale of Women and Power in the Badlands of India for the stage.
Fatima Mohammed will meet scriptwriter Purva Naresh and attend workshop sessions in northern India.
Suba Das said, “we’re thrilled to be working closely with De Montfort University on the next stage of development for Pink Sari Revolution. The project is an ambitious, challenging and international undertaking for us.”
Sarah Thomson, director of strategic partnerships at DMU, said, “we aim to foster a global outlook in all our students and give them the chance to experience different cultures.”
In July 2016 Curve received a £100,000 award as part of Arts Council England’s Reimagine India programme which aims to develop new work and collaborations between arts and cultural organisations in England and India. The project marks the 70th anniversary of the partition of India and Pakistan.
Pink Sari Revolution: A Tale of Women and Power in The Badlands of India recounts the real story of India’s “pink sari gang”, a movement of more than 20,000 women across northern India who fight against the oppression of women.
The story focuses on leader Sampat Pal and the gang’s 2010 campaign to free falsely imprisoned teenager Sheelu Nishad after she was raped by a prominent politician.
Pink Sari Revolution will première at Curve in 2017 before a UK tour and will be performed in parts of India in 2018.