For these actors rehearsing Kissa Yoni Ka, the Hindi version of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, chute—which is vagina in Hindi—is not an abuse but a term to be celebrated. This explains the song and dance over the word as they gleefully deconstruct its syllables and come up with songs starting with them. “Wait till it’s performed on stage, the whole auditorium will burst into “chut” in this interactive piece,” says Mody Kotwal, who is co-directing the play with son Kaizaad.

Though Thakore and she remain common fixtures in both versions, Dugal can give tough competition to Jayati Bhatia’s moaning with her anantnag karhat (multiple moaning) while Agnihotri with her NSD-repertory-trained voice gives Main thi wohan (Hindi of Mother monologue).

In the course of the playtranslated by Ritu Bhatia and Jaydeep Sarkar, more synonyms—yoni, phudi, yonimarg, sangampath, nunu—tumble out. But titillation can be put to rest, for these are pronounced as a joyous expression. “The Hindi version has toned down the play’s text and has made it more subtle at some points, keeping its humour intact. This has brought in a dignity to the play,” says the director.

That doesn’t mean that Mody Kotwal didn’t have her share of trouble over staging the Hindi version. “Initially, I wanted to do it in Marathi and approached several well-known writers but they declined. Our sponsor walked out last minute after pledging their support for three months,” says the actor-director, whose Poor Box Production is now producing the play.