He was just 18 when Kaizaad Kotwal directed his first play. Moved by Mumbai-based feminist Kamla Ramchandani’s The Witness, Kotwal adapted the script for a theatre competition in high school. The play, which focuses on dowry deaths, won the competition, received critical acclaim and was performed at several venues outside the school. On Monday, the 46-year-old faces a far bigger challenge: the premiere at National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Mumbai of his adaptation of John Pielmeier’s Agnes of God, about a nun who gives birth to a child, which has drawn calls for a ban from the Catholic Secular Forum (CSF) and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI). CSF claims the play is a “misrepresentation of the religious belief of the Christian community”, and the CBCI has written to Home Minister Rajnath Singh against “the wrongful portrayal of the character of lakhs of our clergy, who are committed to a life of celibacy”.