National Award-winning actor Saurabh Shukla is bringing his acclaimed thriller play Barff to Pune's Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Hall on 29 November 2026, promising audiences an immersive, edge-of-the-seat experience rooted in the snowy silence of Kashmir — and in deeper questions about the nature of life itself. The production, staged by AGP World, has already notched hundreds of performances across India and international cities.

The Story and Setting

Set deep in Kashmir during the harshest days of winter, Barff follows Dr Kaul — played by Shukla himself — who stumbles upon a mysterious village and finds himself ensnared in a haunting story that unfolds over a single night. In a striking piece of stagecraft, the theatre itself is transformed into a snow-covered valley, with snow falling on stage to blur the line between audience and performance.

'Barff is an edge-of-the-seat thriller with deeper questions about life,' Shukla said. 'It is a very special play for me. The story lived with me for more than seven years before I actually started writing it. I wrote it almost ten years back, and we have been running this show since then. We have done hundreds of shows all over the world, and it's really, really beautiful.'

From Film Script to Stage

Shukla revealed that Barff was originally conceived and written as a film — a script he says he still possesses and hopes to make one day. Translating that visual ambition into theatre became, in his words, the production's defining challenge and its greatest strength. 'Film is a much more visual medium, so the challenge was how to translate that visual quality into theatre. That became the USP of this play,' he said.

With each new city and venue, the production's visual design is reshaped to fit the stage, while its narrative core remains intact. 'The soul of the script remains the same. Barff has been running for so long because we still find it fresh. We still search within the play for what is new that we are discovering. It is almost like a journey where we are searching and exploring, and the play itself is evolving,' Shukla added.

Cast and Collaborators

Joining Shukla on stage are two accomplished performers. Sunil Palwal, an alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune and recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar, is known for the television series 24, the film Jolly LLB, and his turn as Prince Salim in the landmark stage production Mughal-e-Azam. Aanchal Chauhan, seen in Kabir Singh, Netflix's Brij Mohan Amar Rahe, and Amazon Prime's The Pick-Up Artist, also played Paro in AGP World's Devdas — The Musical.

AGP World's Perspective

For AGP World, Barff follows a hugely successful collaboration with Shukla on the comedy 2 to Tango 3 to Jive, which crossed 100 shows. Producer Gidwani noted that this next venture was driven purely by passion. 'He narrated the story and we loved it. It's a very unique genre, and the hardest part is getting the message out without revealing the plot. But once you get people into the theatre, the experience is surreal. We have taken it to the USA, Hong Kong, Dubai and across Indian cities, and every show has had a standing ovation. We are grateful,' Gidwani said.

The Pune show on 29 November 2026 marks the latest stop in what has become one of Indian theatre's most enduring contemporary productions.