Theater personality Arundhati Raja will be restaging Girish Karnad's play Bali in Bengaluru soon. Arundhati Raja, who has transitioned from balancing teaching sciences with theater to focusing solely on theater, discusses her upcoming English adaptation of Girish Karnad's Kannada classic, Hittina Hunja - Bali: The Sacrifice. She reflects on revisiting a play after many years, the challenges she has encountered, and her aspirations for the future of theater. Here are some key points from her interview:

- Arundhati Raja found AI to be helpful during the direction of Bali. AI, although lacking Girish Karnad's knowledge, provided valuable insights. Recasting two characters for the upcoming production posed challenges, but overall the process felt like revisiting the original play with some adjustments to the set.

- English theater in Bengaluru has evolved significantly over the years. Starting with English plays that later became Indianized, the landscape expanded to include translations of local language plays into English, making stories more accessible to a broader audience. These transformations reflect the dynamic nature of theater in Bengaluru.

- Arundhati Raja emphasizes that theater is a collaborative art form that requires comprehensive training to appreciate the complexity involved. It's not just about delivering lines but also about conveying emotions naturally and authentically on stage.You have to embody the character you aim to portray in theater, as it is a collaborative effort. While audiences are quick to dismiss plays they don't enjoy, they often give movies second chances. Theater is seen as a challenging form of entertainment, with many perceiving it as either dull or reserved for the intellectual elite—though this is not accurate.