Anjali Parvati Koda has chosen a path for herself that is less travelled, but she has no complaints. She is the only woman playwright in Hyderabad. She wrote her first play Purushottam when she was 18. “A lot of people think that since I am a woman playwright, my writing should be sensitive, but my writing is more androgynous,” feels Anjali.

Anjali started writing plays five years ago after she joined the city-based theatre group Samahaara. However, writing was always a way of life for her. “We had an in-house magazine in my family that I would contribute to from when I was four years old. I would write my own comic strips,” she says.

It was while she was working in the direction team for tele-films that someone suggested she should go for acting workshops. It was then that she stumbled upon script writing. “It was when I met Rathna Shekhar that my first script for the play Purushottam came about. Then I wrote Dominic Wesley and now my latest production of Gregor Samsa is on its way to being staged,” she says.

She is currently working on her fourth play. Her initial drafts are written on napkins in coffee shops before she puts them down in a manuscript. “Playwriting is a good way to experiment with characters and the plot. It is the single most effective way to get instant gratification,” she feels. Anjali has a lot of critics in the theatre audiences whose feedback she cherishes. “As a writer, I get a lot of feedback, but I do not necessarily change my writing based on feedback. The Hyderabad audience is very opinionated,” says Anjali. “I only change my writing if the audience feels that they can’t understand a plot clearly,” she adds.

Is it easy to make a living as a playwright, now that she is dedicating most of her time to it? “Well, I think you can make a living as a playwright, but you do need to tour with your team and do a lot of productions. At the end of the day, there are other factors that prove your popularity as a playwright. You might be terrific at your job, but if you do not have a good director and good actors, you will still fail,” she signs off.