Pankhuri Singh

About me:

Pankhuri Singh has passed her PhD from the Department of English and Creative Writing, University of Exeter. Her research involves analysing the methods by which William Shakespeare's plays are adapted in the Indian cultural setting. The title of her research is Reimagining Shakespeare: A Journey through Vishal Bhardwaj's Trilogy.

She is originally from India and has a passion for writing blogs and photography.

Research Unit:
Adaptation of Shakespeare's Plays in Indian Cinema
Research Project:

Adaptation of Shakespeare's plays in Indian Cinema.

My thesis argues for and aims to bring to light the methods employed by Vishal Bhardwaj in adapting William Shakespeare’s plays in Bombay cinema. It draws on the plays of Macbeth, Othello, and Hamlet, which are adapted in Maqbool (2004), Omkara (2006), and Haider (2014), respectively. The methodological approaches being used involve close reading of source texts and watching films based on them. I will also take the Transcultural Adaptation Theory and the Theory of Indigenisation into account, as the overall focus of my thesis is determining how Shakespeare has been recontextualised in the Indian setting. The thesis aims to offer a nuanced understanding of the various approaches undertaken by Bhardwaj to translocate the Shakespearean play in the Indian setting. 

Research Supervisory team:

Supervisors:

Professor Pascale Aebischer

Dr Ranita Chatterjee

Research Wider Research Interests:

Transcultural Adaptations

Adaptation theories

Cinema and Literature

Rethinking Shakespeare

Education:

She started her research in January 2021 and was awarded her degree in July of 2025. 

Scholarships, Awards and Honours:
• Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA). 
• Postgraduate Research Support Funding, University of Exeter. 
• Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Postgraduate Research Studentship, Exeter. 
• Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research Culture Funds, University of Exeter.
• Success for All Funds, University of Exeter.
• Won the residential Writing Retreat Award, Summer 2024, Doctoral College, Exeter. 
• Grant to attend several national and international conferences. 

Work Experience- Teaching:
• Seminar lead and guest lecturer for Rethinking Shakespeare (2025).
• Seminar lead for Film Studies and Visual Culture (2021-2025) [Core Module].
• Seminar lead for Adaptation: Text, Image and Culture (2021-2025) [Core Module].
• Seminar lead for Literary Criticism (2021-2025) [Core Module].
• Assessor and marker for summative and formative examinations of undergraduates at Exeter. 
• Research Culture Assistant for the College of Humanities, University of Exeter.
• Post Graduate Teaching Associate for PGRs and ECRs at Doctoral College, University of Exeter.
• Facilitator for Grand Challenges- United Nations Development Goals Programme.