Ahmedabad-born filmmaker and theatre artist Dhrunad has been active in performance for over 20 years. With a Bachelor’s degree in Performing Arts and a Master’s in Film and Media Production from the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles, he has acted in more than 60 plays and directed productions that span from Kafka to contemporary Gujarati writers. His debut Gujarati feature film Kamthaan released in 2024 to critical acclaim. Now based in Mumbai, he continues to move between cinema and theatre, using each form to ask questions about the world we live in.

At Abhivyakti, Dhrunad presents Like Share Subscribe, a play about Kirti, a young woman pulled into the strange economy of social media validation. What begins as a simple profile soon becomes an addictive game of performance and pretence, until her online persona confronts her directly. Inspired by Gogol’s The Nose, the play reflects on how easily identity can fracture under the pressure of digital life.

For Dhrunad, this story is both observation and experience. Conversations with young people, his own encounters with online culture and insights from his wife’s work in digital marketing - all shaped the narrative. He hopes the audience leaves with a simple truth: social media validation is not real validation.