"If my fault that I am a girl?" A rape victim asks people surrounding her on stage, "What are you doing? Where were you? What will you wear?" Finally, she breaks down: “Society's words may hurt my body, but society is hurting my heart.”
This scene from the street play 'Nasurat Prakaran: Ran Ajun Kiti' stopped crowds during Ganesh festival in Pune. Its conceiver, Shubham Kulkami, 31, is not a professional activist. He is the father of a 3-year-old girl raped and murdered in Nashik on May 1, 2026.
His daughter was assaulted and killed by Bhimrao Kamble, 65, while at her grandmother's house in Nasrapur. The case went to fast-track court, which awarded death penalty under POCSO and BNS on June 29. Kulkarni still lives with the question every parent dreads - could speaking up have saved her?
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Kulkarni spoke for a few minutes before the play, asking the audience to be cautious about the criminal mindsets around them. "It is about the safety of girls against sexual violence," he told The Indian Express. “The play should not view the victim and her family negatively. It is wrong to question the victim for the crime committed by the accused.”
The play's second layer is personal catharsis. When his younger daughter is 2, he says, while the older would have been 5. Satisfied with the court's order, he says the issue of women's safety remains. With that in mind, he named the play after his deceased daughter.
Around the same period, filmmaker Pramod Prabhakar, associate of late director Nagraj Manjule, heard his story and offered support through his academy, Nirmiti Arts and Media. Shravan Mohite, an engineer who heard about his daughter's case, volunteered to act.
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The play prepared in 15 days had its first performance on September 22 at Kasba Ganesh Mandal in Pune, followed by shows at Tulshibaug, Mandals across the city. "While Mitali Pawar's prepared script, Shreyas Ingle acted voluntarily. Hundreds were left in tears," says Mohite. The group says they don't want to hide incidents of sexual abuse but to confront them.
At a time when justice is seen only as court verdict, this father shows justice is also public memory.
Tags: #Pune #StreetPlay #WomenSafety #POCSO #ChildSafety #Nashik #GenderViolence #GaneshFestival #ShubhamKulkami