‘Rajkumari’ Lands in Bengaluru as Nayab Midha Brings Global Tour Home

Bengaluru: There is something wonderfully disarming about speaking to Nayab Midha. For someone who has built a career performing before thousands, she still talks about the stage with the excitement of someone discovering it for the first time. “I like to say I was born on stage,” Nayab says.

That joy is at the heart of Rajkumari, her two-and-a-half-hour spoken word production that arrives in Bengaluru this week as part of a 22-city India tour.

Over the past few years, the show has travelled from intimate venues in India to sold-out performances across the UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Yet, for Nayab, the show’s greatest success is not measured in ticket sales or packed auditoriums, but in the conversations that happen after the curtains fall.

Rajkumari blends poetry, storytelling, and personal narrative, drawing audiences into themes of identity, womanhood, and memory. The production has built a loyal following for its mix of vulnerability and humour, with shows often ending in long post-performance discussions between the artist and her audience.

The India leg marks a homecoming of sorts for the show, which began in small venues before expanding overseas. The Bengaluru performance is one of 22 stops on the current tour, reflecting growing demand for live spoken word in the country.

For Nayab, the stage remains less about scale and more about connection. “Every city feels like the first time,” she says.