The success of the peoples’ theatre lay in its proliferation through multiple theatre troupes. Inspired by their leader's passion and relying on their first-ever experience of theatre with Ashesh Malla, some activist theatre workers went on to form theatre groups of their own. Among Malla's close associates in the early years of Nepal's engaged theatre movement, Sunil Pokharel (b. 1963) became a dynamic force behind both Nepal's social action theatre and the growth of aesthetic theatre in Kathmandu and beyond. Initiated into theatre during the drive for democracy, Pokharel performed with Malla in the early days of Sarwanam before breaking away and founding his own troupe that would go on to become the most influential theatre of its generation.

With Badri Adhikari, Basanta Bhatta, Bhairab Chhettari, Samanta Kansakar, Pradeep Shrestha, and the sisters Chandramala Sharma, Nisha Sharma, and Suryamala Sharma, Pokharel formed a theatre group aimed at presenting ‘meaningful’ theatre. They adopted the name Aarohan, meaning ‘to climb higher’ or ‘to ascend’. Pokharel acquired further theatre training at the Royal Nepal Academy, with its stable of actors who performed only for the elite in the government sponsored theatres. From 1984 to 1987, Pokharel studied directing at India's National School of Drama as the first Nepali student to matriculate there. During holiday breaks from drama school in New Delhi and after graduating, Pokharel returned to Nepal, gathered the members of Aarohan together again, and took up the political mantle to perform street theatre in the concerted effort to win democracy. Pokharel's formal theatre training and exposure to world drama combined with his natural instincts to result in sophistication previously unknown in this style or period of Nepali theatre. Drawing on acting and directing techniques learned in India, Pokharel strove for aesthetic merit beyond the political or social messages of the plays he directed, produced, and acted in. In 1985, between street theatre activities, Pokharel directed the first production of Sophocles’ Oedipus to be staged in Nepal. Because it described the act of killing a king, Aarohan was not permitted to restage the play for the next 30 years.