Dastaan - e - Sahir by Himanshu Bajpai

Dastan-e-Sahir is an exuberant, magical and eloquent portrayal of the life of Sahir Ludhianvi, the legendary urdu poet and film lyricist of the superhit songs- Abhi na jao chodh kar, kabhi kabhi mere dil mein khayal aata hai, main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya, main pal do pal ka shayar hun. etc. With his incisive writing, Sahir remains one of the most loved and most popular Bollywood lyricists even today. The Dastan is an attempt to present before the audience the essence of Sahir’s individualism, self-esteem, humanism, as well as his quirks and maverick attitude. 
 
Dr. Himanshu Bajpai is a leading dastango of India and has performed more than 400 shows in India and in other countries such as Russia, UAE, Singapore, Kuwait etc. Having been lauded by Hon’ble PM Modi, Himanshu was invited by Harvard University to perform at the Harvard Worldwide Week. He performs more than 30 dastans on various personages such as Chandrashekhar Azad, Tulsidas, Mirabai, Khusrau, Kabir, Wajid Ali Shah, Sahir Ludhianvi, Kaifi Azmi, Lucknow, Aam and many more. He has been a part of Netflix show ‘Sacred Games Season 2’ and was a dialogue writer and dialect coach in Bollywood movie All India Rank. His book Qissa Qissa Lucknowa won Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar 2021. 

Dr. Pragya Sharma is a leading and the first female dastango from Lucknow. Pragya is now among India’s few full-time professional storytellers. Pragya has approximately twenty dastans (stories) to her name, and has performed them at major national and international events. With 200 shows to her credit, her storytelling flawlessly brings out the nuances, duality, subtle sensibilities and complexities of human nature. Her skills elevate the climax of dastans such as in Jhansi ki Rani, Durgavati, Maharana Pratap, Mirabai and Ganga.