Shubham Shyam, a math teacher-turned-poet from Bihar, still remembers the day he performed at Habitat Studio for the very first time. He was 22 and had only recently moved to Mumbai.
"This was back in 2017. I got overwhelmed on stage and forgot my poem—but instead of heckling me or laughing at me, everyone present clapped, cheered, and hooted to calm my nervousness," Shyam tells The Quint.
This is the tradition at Habitat Studio—you cheer extra for the first timers, and you always encourage people when they falter.
Like Shyam, many emerging artists owed it to this popular performance studio in Mumbai for helping them 'start off'. And for old-timers like stand-up comedian Daniel Fernandes, Habitat Studio is like "our home... It's a place of worship."
This beloved 'home' for poets, comedians, and filmmakers alike was allegedly vandalised by a mob comprising Shiv Sena workers on Sunday, 23 March, over a video posted by comedian Kunal Kamra of a stand-up act shot there.
Following the mob attack—during which "the police remained mere bystanders" as per eyewitnesses—the venue was forced to temporarily shut down on Monday. Soon after, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), too, swung into action and demolished an "illegal" portion of the club.
For artists, the destruction of the studio stands for something deeper—it is not the destruction of a physical structure but of "a safe space for their art where they could not only grow as artists but also find their audience."