A vintage film scene with dancers on stage, a camera on a tripod recording the performance, and an open handwritten notebook with a pen, overlaying the scene to create a nostalgic aesthetic.

SELECTED WORKS

Most of these works began as pieces of writing that were supposed to remain quietly on paper. Some of them, however, refused to stay there and insisted on becoming films or performances. I have learned not to argue too much with stories once they decide what they want to become. The works below are part of that ongoing conversation between writing and the forms it eventually takes.


Cover of the book titled 'A Song for Eresha' showing a boat with two people rowing on a winding river at sunset, surrounded by lush greenery and trees, with birds flying in the sky.

PUBLISHED NOVEL

A Song for Eresha is a literary novel set in a prestigious institute of classical arts in South India. It follows a revered teacher whose life, long governed by discipline and authority, begins to shift when a younger artist enters the institution. The novel explores art, power, mentorship, and the quiet devastation of unreturned love. The work was also adapted into a feature film.


A pencil sketch of a hillside landscape with houses, trees, and mountains in the background.

CURRENT WORK

THE BACHELOR OF BELLATI

A memoir of reinvention, friendship and unexpected belonging, set against the landscapes, people and quiet eccentricities of the Nilgiri hills.


STORIES ACROSS STAGE & SCREEN

The Ghost of the Lighthouse began as a novella-length script set in a small seaside town and follows a tourist guide who dreams of travelling the world even as she guides visitors who come from far away to find peace in her town. The story rests on this quiet irony and explores longing, place, and the idea that one person’s destination is another person’s departure.

Book cover titled 'The Ghost of the Lighthouse' by A K Srikanth, featuring a lighthouse on a dark, foggy night with its beam of light.

Originally conceived as a short story and later adapted into a short film, Slow Rivers follows an artist searching for immortality through the creation of one definitive performance. Over time, the search itself begins to change her understanding of art, leading her to discover that immortality may not reside in the work that survives, but in the moment when the artist disappears completely into the act of creation.

Book cover titled 'Slow Rivers' by AK Srikanth, showing a river at sunset or sunrise with dark trees along the banks and a cloudy sky.
Book cover titled "Soul Cages" by A K Srikanth featuring a gold birdcage and a floating feather on a dark background.

Soul Cages was an early narrative work written for dance theatre Conceived as a dark philosophical story, it examined life and death as a continuum and marked the beginning of a series of narrative-driven works that moved beyond traditional mythological themes in classical dance.

The Colours Trilogy consists of three stories inspired by the colours of the Indian national flag and the ideals they represent. Each explores the life of a woman whose circumstances quietly challenge those ideals, creating a space between symbolism and lived reality. Together, they reflect on nationhood, identity, and the place of women within the promises a country makes to itself.

An artistic depiction of a woman in profile with flowing hair, set against a warm orange background with a city skyline, trees, and a tractor, evoking themes of patriotism and serenity.

Inspired by Ueda Akinari’s Harusame Monogatari, The Shrine is a philosophical story about rebirth, karma, and divine justice. It follows a mysterious woman who arrives in a hillside village and is slowly taken by the villagers to be a deity. When she fails to fulfil their wishes, reverence turns to violence, and only after her death do they build a shrine in her honour. The story reflects on faith, human expectation, and the uneasy relationship between devotion and desire.

The cover of a book titled 'The Shrine' by AK Srikant, featuring minimalist artwork of a shrine with smoke rising from a small fire or lamp.

A middle-aged woman who has spent a lifetime regretting that she never fulfilled her childhood dream of becoming a classical dancer finds her impossible ambition unexpectedly revived when her delightfully scheming family conspires to get her onto a real stage. What follows is a warm, gently humorous tale of affectionate deception, chaotic rehearsals and the joyous discovery that some dreams are worth pursuing, no matter how fashionably late they arrive.

A woman dressed in traditional Indian attire, performing a classical dance pose in a dimly lit, ornate setting with traditional decor and a brass lamp in the background.