Vinay Apte, director, Sharad Ponkshe, the actor who has played Nathuram, Uday Dhurat, producer and Ramrao Adik, former deputy chief minister, also participated. The second-floor hall of the Indian Merchants Chamber was packed to capacity much before the discussion began. The discussion opened with brief speeches by the playwright and the producer of the play. ``It's just that we wanted the people to know the other side. The mayhem at Shivaji Mandir in protest of the play was against the principles Gandhi stood for. We do not belong to any political party, the stage is a natakwallah's party,'' Dhurat said.

Adik got into the history of India at great length before he was guided into thetopic of the evening by an impatient audience. ``I have not been able to understand the reason behind writing a play on someone who killed a great man like Gandhi. The topic has no entertainment value, no social vision and least of all any national interest. Why is Nathuram speaking? Why has the play been written?'' he asked Dalvi. Pat came the reply: ``To show the real history,'' from a member of the audience that was charged by now.

It was Dalvi's turn to speak when he asked Ponkshe to deliver ``a good dialogue on Gandhi'' from the play. But Gandhi promptly declared that he would leave the hall if even a single dialogue was delivered. Emotions came to the fore after that as the audience got divided over whether the dialogue should be delivered or not. Albeit unevenly most of the audience seemed to be in favour of Dalvi's suggestion.

``This crowd is partisan. Nathuram was a killer, he was sick,'' continued an emotionally charged Gandhi. He also objected to the advocacy of the play on the grounds offreedom of speech. Dalvi was asked if he would write a play on Tiger Memon, to which he said, ``Yes if you pay me.'' But he realised his blunder and said it was a joke to reduce the tension in the hall. He made his stand clear when he said that it was ``a journalist, who had no intentions of personal gains when killing Gandhi'' that interested him. The man accused of glorifying Gandhi quoted him in his defence, ``There is no holier deed than searching truth.'' After this the hall drowned into shrieking voices attempting to have the last word.