Meet Chennai’s all-women improv ensemble

“We are the best all-women improv ensemble in India! And we can confidently say that because we are India’s only all-women improv ensemble.” This is how Shalini Vijayakumar, founder of the eight-woman improv group The Hysterical, opens one of its many sold-out shows in Chennai. Even in Bengaluru, a city The Hysterical were drawn to because of its prevalent weekend comedy culture, early shows drew in smaller crowds of mostly Tamil viewers, says Shalini. They note that the initial responses to their shows were always positive, though bringing new viewers remains difficult due to the relatively unknown nature of the genre itself. “All of these are spaces we have created within the past year,” says Vinithra, “and moving on, these spaces can only grow.” “In one year, what we have realised is that a room full of women, feeling free to be as funny as they want without being self-conscious, was something so hilarious that we felt like this should go to many other spaces,” says Shalini.