Veteran playwright Sai Paranjpye named for the Vishnudas Bhave Gaurav Padak

Sangli: Veteran playwright, writer and director Sai Paranjpye, who has made a major contribution to theatre and playwriting, has been named for this year's Vishnudas Bhave Gaurav Padak. The Akhil Maharashtra Natya Vidyamandir Samiti will present it in Sangli on November 5, Marathi Theatre Day (Rangbhumi Din); Mohan Joshi, president of the Marathi drama conference, will hand it over.

The award consists of a medal, ₹30,000 in cash, a memento, a shawl and a coconut, the Samiti's president Dr Sharad Karale told reporters.

Paranjpye's first children's book, 'Mulancha Meva', was published when she was eight, with encouragement from her mother Shakuntala Paranjpye and grandfather R.P. Paranjpye. She wrote nine children's plays, including 'Jaducha Shankh', 'Patte Nagarit' and 'Shepticha Shaap', and her plays for adult audiences include 'Majha Khel Mandu De', 'Soyrik', 'Sakhkhe Shejari' and 'Jaswandi', which won the state government's best production award in 1978.

In Delhi she wrote and directed the tamasha-style plays 'Ek Tamasha Achchha Khasa' and 'Dhik Taam', taking Maharashtra's folk form to the stage there. With her husband Arun Joglekar she staged experimental plays through their group Natyadwayi, and she translated Vijay Tendulkar's 'Gidhade' into Hindi as 'Giddh'. The central government awarded her the Padma Bhushan in 2006.

Source: Prahaar.in