Guru Kunju Kurup (1881–1970) was a Kathakali dancer from south Kerala, India.
Prasanna, is a major Indian theatre director and playwright from Karnataka. He is one of the pioneers of modern Kannada theatre. He graduated from the National School of Drama (NSD). He founded Samudaya and gave a creative direction to Kannada theatre in the 1970s with other activists. Prasanna lives in Heggodu in Karnataka. He is known for his organisational skills and new ideas and innovations in theatre. He is a Sangeet Natak Akademi Awardee. He has directed plays for National School of Drama, Ninasam, Rangamandal-Bhopal, Rangayana and worked with many theatre organizations of India. He elected as National President of Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA).
Munna Shukla was a Kathak guru and choreographer of Lucknow Gharana based in New Delhi, India. Born to a family who has been involved in dance for generations, Munna Shukla specialized in Kathak, a classical dance form of North India. He was a grandson of the noted Kathak Maestro, Late Achhan Maharaj, and a nephew of Birju Maharaj.
Arundhati Nag is an Indian actress. She has been involved with multilingual Theatre in India, for over 25 years, first in Mumbai where she got involved with Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA), and did various productions in Gujarati, Marathi, and Hindi theatre, and then in Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and English, in Bangalore.
Sunanda Nair is an Indian dancer trained in Mohiniattam. She did her master's degree in this dance form from Nalanda Nritya Kala Mahavidyalaya affiliated to the University of Mumbai. She has completed her PhD from University of Mumbai for her thesis "Intrinsic Lyrical Feminism in Mohiniattam". She was born in Mumbai, India.
Ratan Thiyam is an Indian playwright and theatre director, and the winner of Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1987, one of leading figures of the "theatre of roots" movement in Indian theatre, which started in the 1970s. Also known as Thiyam Nemai, Ratan Thiyam is known for writing and staging plays that use ancient Indian theatre traditions and forms in a contemporary context. A former painter, and proficient in direction, design, script and music, Thiyam is often considered one of leading contemporary theatre gurus.
Sudhindra Sircar, also known as Badal Sarkar, was an influential Indian dramatist and theatre director, most known for his anti-establishment plays during the Naxalite movement in the 1970s and taking theatre out of the proscenium and into public arena, when he transformed his own theatre company, Shatabdi as a third theatre group. He wrote more than fifty plays of which Ebong Indrajit, Basi Khabar, and Saari Raat are well known literary pieces. A pioneering figure in street theatre as well as in experimental and contemporary Bengali theatre with his egalitarian "Third Theatre", he prolifically wrote scripts for his Aanganmanch performances, and remains one of the most translated Indian playwrights. Though his early comedies were popular, it was his angst-ridden Evam Indrajit that became a landmark play in Indian theatre. Today, his rise as a prominent playwright in 1960s is seen as the coming of age of Modern Indian playwriting in Bengali, just as Vijay Tendulkar did it in Marathi, Mohan Rakesh in Hindi, and Girish Karnad in Kannada.
Sudha Shivpuri was an Indian actress who was most famous for her role as Baa in the Hindi TV serial Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (2000–2008).
Manohar Singh was an Indian theatre actor-director and character actor in Hindi films. He is best known for his performances in films such as Party (1984) and Daddy (1989). Starting his acting career from theatre, he went on to become a theatre director and later the chief of National School of Drama Repertory Company, 1976 to 1988, before switching to cinema. As a theatre actor his best known performances were in Tughlaq, directed by Ebrahim Alkazi; Himmat Mai and Begum Barve by Nissar and Amal Allana.
Bhanu Bharti is an Indian theatre director and playwright, and the founder-director of Aaj Rangmandal theatre group. Most known for his theatre productions and choreographies with tribal and folk artists, including Pashu Gayatri by K.N. Panikkar, Kaal Katha and Amar Beej, all are based on rituals of the Bhil tribe of Mewar region of Rajasthan, apart from Chandrama Singh urf Chamku Das, Yamgatha and Aks-Tamasha, counting to over 70 plays in a career spanning nearly four decades.
Jyotsna Keshav Bhole also known as Jyotsnabai Bhole, was a veteran Marathi stage artist and a Hindustani classical singer. Along with Padmabai Vartak, she was among the first female actresses to perform the role of a female character in Marathi theatre in the play Andhalyachi Shala in 1933.
Tapas Sen was a noted Indian stage lighting designer, who was an important figure in 20th-century Indian theatre. He started working with Bengali theatre movement in Kolkata in the late 1940s, along with noted directors, Utpal Dutt and Shambhu Mitra. Later he became a founding member of the Indian People's Theatre Association's (IPTA), Delhi chapter, and worked closely with Hindi theatre. Through his career stretching five decades he worked theatre directors, Ebrahim Alkazi, Vijay Tendulkar, and also dancers Sadhana Bose, Chandralekha, Birju Maharaj and Kelucharan Mahapatra. He was known not only for his creative stage lighting, but also had a significant impact on the work of leading theatre director of the time.
B. Jayashree is a veteran Indian theatre actress, director and singer, who has also acted in films and television and worked as dubbing artist in films. She is the creative director of Spandana Theatre, an amateur theatre company established in Bangalore in 1976.
Jaishankar Bhudhardas Bhojak, better known by his theatre name Jaishankar Sundari , was an Indian actor and director of Gujarati theatre. Starting at the young age, he rose to fame for his roles of female impersonator in early Gujarati plays. He retired from acting in 1932 but returned to theatre direction and teaching in 1948. He directed and acted in several successful plays. He was awarded the Ranjitram Suvarna Chandrak in 1951 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1971.
Maya Rao was an Indian classical dancer, choreographer and educator, in Kathak dance. She is known for her pioneering work in Kathak choreography, especially in dance ballets, and is credited for bringing Kathak, a North Indian-dance style to South India, when she opened her dance school, Natya Institute of Kathak and Choreography (NIKC) in Malleswaram, Bangalore in 1987. She was also the founder director of her dance company, "Natya and Stem Dance Kampni", an amalgam of NIKC and the STEM Dance Kampni based in Bangalore. After her early training under Guru Sohanlal of Jaipur Gharana, followed by Guru Sunder Prasad also of the Jaipur Gharana, and went to train under Guru Shambhu Maharaj of Lucknow Gharana at National Institute of Kathak Dance in Delhi.
Joy Michael (1927-2018) was an Indian theatre personality and the co-founder of Yatrik, a repertory company based in Delhi. The Government of India honored her in 2012, with the fourth highest civilian award of Padma Shri.
Sheila Bhatia (1916-2008) was an Indian poet, playwright, theatre personality and the founder of the Delhi Art Theatre, a forum based in Delhi for the promotion of Indian art forms. She is credited with originating Punjabi opera, an Indian form of dance drama incorporating operatic movements. She was honoured by the Government of India in 1971 with Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award. A decade later, she received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for theatre direction in 1982 followed by Kalidas Samman in 1997.
Kailash Pandya was an Indian theatre artist and winner of several national awards in India.
Alok Chatterjee is an Indian theatre actor and director known for his theatre productions like Death of a Salesman, Nat Samrat and #Anandmath latest play 2022. He has been teaching at NSD and Pune based FTII. He also taught acting in the institute of Anupam Kher, Actor Prepress in Mumbai. At present, Chatterjee, in Madhya Pradesh Natya Vidyalaya Bhopal, is known for his vast range of acting (teaching) with deep literary understanding. He is a gold medalist from the National School of Drama, Delhi for best acting. At present Alok Chatterjee does theatre in his hometown at Bhopal. He also awarded with Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for the year 2019 by the president of India Droupadi Murmu at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.
Satyabrata Rout is an Indian theatre director Scenographer, Author and theatre academic. He is a former faculty member of the National School of Drama. At present, he is a professor and Head of the department of Theatre at University of Hyderabad, India. He is known for his contribution toward Visual theatre in India.
