Removing his glasses, the right lens of which is darkened, Naseeruddin Shah addresses the audience with a plea for the freedom of artistic expression. “Art is not a luxury. It stands at the essence of our humanity and it asks for no special protection except the right to exist. Without art, our ability to think, to see freshly, and to renew our world would wither and die,” the actor-director says.

These lines are part of the closing dialogue of 27 Seconds, Shah’s upcoming play. The play is based on Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder , Salman Rushdie’s autobiographical account of the stabbing attack on him in August 2022 at New York’s Chautauqua Institution. The darkened lens is a reminder of the attack’s lasting consequences: the Booker Prize-winning author permanently lost sight in his right eye.

Naseeruddin Shah rehearsing his new play 27 Seconds, based on Knife by Salman Rushdie’s account of the 2022 stabbing attack on him, in Mumbai.…