For some Bollywood actors, motherhood marks a pause in the relentless pace of mainstream cinema, despite the adulation, awards, and box-office success. Kalki Koechlin is one of them. A successful actor in Dev D, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, and more recently in Kho Gaye Hum Kahan and Goldfish, she has now returned to her first love: theatre. Koechlin has earned her acting chops after graduating from Goldsmiths, University of London, and for a while balanced cinema with the stage, appearing in productions such as Skeleton Woman, Trivial Disasters, What’s Done, is Done, and The Real Inspector Hound.
The versatile actor is an artist too; in 2021, Koechlin published The Elephant in the Womb, which was a candid illustrated book that dismantled romantic notions of pregnancy and motherhood. The deeply personal book has been adapted into the play Belly of the Beast, directed by Sheena Khalid for Aadyam Theatre. Not surprisingly, the multihyphenate is both co-writer and a lead actor.
The play explores the lives of five women navigating pregnancy, childbirth, miscarriage, postpartum struggles and parenting. “While developing this show, Kalki came across a myth about a weaver who is known as the Weaver of the World. It is a story about how everything in life comes undone and you must pick up the pieces and start all over again. We found it a very compelling idea... and it made it into the play,” says Khalid. Playing multiple roles beyond her principal character was demanding for Koechlin. “It is quite tricky to jump from one to the other... Just trying to define each role differently was challenging,” admits Koechlin.
Despite topics such as tackling miscarriage, postpartum depression and the emotional upheaval of motherhood, the play finds room for humour. “Some of these sub-topics are so heavy, but a lot of mothers see a kind of humour in them. These are things which are relatable to a mother,” Koechlin says. Developed collaboratively, Belly of the Beast draws from the lived experiences of its cast. “The women of today who are in the play have contributed to that relatability of what it means to be a mother and a woman,” she adds.
Khalid leaves audiences with the central truth: “That’s where life comes to us and that is such a fundamentally universal thing that binds us all... more than anything, this play is a celebration of that.” For Koechlin, the adaptation marks the stage debut of her book, but a return to what she has always called home.