Babri Masjid was a mosque in Ayodhya, India. It has been claimed to have been built upon the site of Ram Janmabhoomi, the legendary birthplace of Rama, a principal deity of Hinduism. It has been a focus of dispute between the Hindu and Muslim communities since the 19th century. According to the mosque's inscriptions, it was built in 1528–29 by Mir Baqi, a commander of the Mughal emperor Babur. Before the 1940s, the masjid was officially known as "Masjid-i-Janmasthan". The mosque was attacked and demolished by a Hindu nationalist mob in 1992, which ignited communal violence across the Indian subcontinent.
The Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award of the Republic of India. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conferred in recognition of "exceptional service/performance of the highest order", without distinction of race, occupation, position or gender. The award was originally limited to achievements in the arts, literature, science, and public services, but the Government of India expanded the criteria to include "any field of human endeavor" in December 2011. The recommendations for the award are made by the Prime Minister to the President. The recipients receive a Sanad (certificate) signed by the President and a peepal leaf-shaped medallion. Bharat Ratna recipients rank seventh in the Indian order of precedence.
Jeans is a 1998 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film directed by S. Shankar, and produced by Ashok Amritraj and Murali Manohar. The film stars Prashanth and Aishwarya Rai, while Lakshmi, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nassar, Senthil and Raju Sundaram play supporting roles. The background score and soundtrack were composed by A. R. Rahman, while Ashok Kumar and the duo B. Lenin and V. T. Vijayan handled the cinematography and editing, respectively.
Om Prakash Puri, was an Indian actor who appeared in mainstream commercial Hindi films as well as Urdu, Malayalam, Bengali, Kannada, English, Punjabi, Gujarati, Telugu, and Marathi films, as well as independent and art films and also starred in several international cinema. He is widely regarded as one of the finest actors in world cinema. He won two National Film Awards for Best Actor, two Filmfare Awards and India's fourth highest civilian award Padma Shri in 1990. In 2004, he was made an honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire.
Girish Karnad was an Indian actor, film director, Kannada writer, playwright and a Jnanpith awardee, who predominantly worked in Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Marathi films. His rise as a playwright in the 1960s marked the coming of age of modern Indian playwriting in Kannada, just as Badal Sarkar did in Bengali, Vijay Tendulkar in Marathi, and Mohan Rakesh in Hindi. He was a recipient of the 1998 Jnanpith Award, the highest literary honour conferred in India.
Prithviraj Kapoor was an Indian actor who is also considered to be one of the founding figures of Hindi cinema. He was associated with IPTA as one of its founding members and established the Prithvi Theatres in 1944 as a travelling theatre company based in Bombay.
Ritwik Kumar Ghatak was an Indian film director, screenwriter, actor and playwright. Along with prominent contemporary Bengali filmmakers like Satyajit Ray, Tapan Sinha and Mrinal Sen, his cinema is primarily remembered for its meticulous depiction of social reality, partition and feminism. He won the National Film Award's Rajat Kamal Award for Best Story in 1974 for his Jukti Takko Aar Gappo and Best Director's Award from Bangladesh Cine Journalist's Association for Titash Ekti Nadir Naam. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri for Arts in 1970.
Salim Abdul Rashid Khan is an Indian actor, film producer and screenwriter. He wrote the screenplays, stories and scripts for numerous Bollywood films. He is one half of the prolific screenwriting duo of Salim–Javed, along with Javed Akhtar. The duo were among the first Indian screenwriters to achieve star status in Hindi cinema, and became one of the most successful Indian screenwriters of all time. While working together, Salim Khan was largely responsible for developing the stories and characters, whereas Javed Akhtar was largely responsible for developing the dialogues.
Five Point Someone: What not to do at IIT is a 2004 novel written by Indian author Chetan Bhagat. The book has sold over a million copies worldwide. It was adapted into a play by the theatre company Evam.
The Indian Institute of Technology Madras is a public technical university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the eight public Institutes of Eminence of India. As an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), IIT Madras is also recognised as an Institute of National Importance.
Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama is a 1993 anime film co-produced by Japan and India; produced and directed by Yugo Sako. It is based on the Indian epic Ramayana. The film was directed by Koichi Sasaki and Ram Mohan, with music composed by Vanraj Bhatia. The film was first released in India at the 24th International Film Festival of India. It was also screened at the 1993 Vancouver International Film Festival. Subsequently, a Hindi dubbed version was released in the late 1990s. However, on Jan 24, 2025, it was released in theatres in 4K with old English Dub, new Hindi Dub, Tamil Dub and Telugu Dub.
Habib Tanvir was one of the most popular Indian Urdu playwrights, a theatre director, poet and actor. He was the writer of plays such as, Agra Bazar (1954) and Charandas Chor (1975). A pioneer in Urdu and Hindi theatre, he was most known for his work with Chhattisgarhi tribals, at the Naya Theatre, a theatre company he founded in 1959 in Bhopal. He went on to include indigenous performance forms such as nacha, to create not only a new theatrical language, but also milestones such as Charandas Chor, Gaon ka Naam Sasural, Mor Naam Damad and Kamdeo ka Apna Basant Ritu ka Sapna.
Rashi Bunny is an Indian theatre and cinema actress. She has performed in Bhisham Sahni's Madhavi, Manjula Padmanabhan's Hidden Fires, and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince with director Arvind Gaur. Rashi Bunny was selected as "one of the 50 Icons: Emerging personality of India" by the Sahara India group with Rahul Gandhi. Rashi Bunny is also known for the "I have a dream" theatre workshop for self-exploration and creative expression.
Paava Mannippu is a 1961 Indian Tamil-language drama film directed and edited by A. Bhimsingh, who co-produced it under his banner Buddha Pictures, with AVM Productions. The film features an ensemble cast of Sivaji Ganesan, Gemini Ganesan, Savitri, Devika and M. R. Radha. M. V. Rajamma, V. Nagayya, S. V. Subbaiah and T. S. Balaiah play supporting roles. It revolves around four children who are separated from their parents in childhood, then found and raised by foster parents of different religious backgrounds.
Hindi theatre is theatre performed in the Hindi language, including dialects such as Braj Bhasha, Khari Boli and Hindustani. Hindi theatre is produced mainly in North India, and some parts of West India and Central India, which include Mumbai and Bhopal. Hindi theatre has its roots in the traditional folk theatre of North India, like Ram lila and Raslila, and also influenced by distant Sanskrit drama. Starting with Bhartendu Harishchandra in the late 19th century and subsequent playwrights like Jaishankar Prasad, Mohan Rakesh, Hindi theatre came of age in the 1940s and 50s, when IPTA movement created a new brand of theatre practitioners in Hindi speaking areas, especially with IPTA Mumbai, Prithvi Theatres of thespian Prithviraj Kapoor, and theatre artiste Habib Tanvir, paving way for next generation of artists who came out once National School of Drama, Delhi started functioning in 1959.
Sunil Shanbag is an Indian theatre director, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker. He has graduated from University of Bombay, and although he didn't have any formal training in theatre, he has worked extensively with Satyadev Dubey, who considers him one of his foremost protégés. In 1985, Shanbag founded the theatre company Arpana. Its work is characterised by "contemporary and original texts by Indian and international playwrights, strong performances, minimalist staging, and innovative use of music and design."
Shanta Gokhale is an Indian writer, translator, journalist and theatre critic. She is best known for her works Rita Welinkar and Tya Varshi.
Shivkumar Joshi was a Gujarati language author from India. He was also stage actor and director. Born in Ahmedabad and lived in Calcutta, he was involved in literary activities. He wrote large number of plays, novels and short stories.
Mohit Ratnakar Takalkar(Marathi: मोहित टाकळकर; born 18 August 1977) is an Indian theatre director, filmmaker and film editor from Pune, Maharashtra. He co-founded the theatre company, Aasakta Kalamanch in 2003.
India Since the 90s is a six-volume collection of texts and images produced over the last three decades, in social theory, performance, moving image practices, urban studies, museum studies and photography. The six titles in the series are The Hunger of the Republic: Our Present in Retrospect, Improvised Futures: Encountering the Body in Performance, The Vanishing Point: Moving Images After Video, Cities on the Ground: The New ‘Urban’ Experience, Another Lens: Photography Practices and Image Cultures and Ghosts of Future Nations: Gods, Migrants and Tribals in the Late-Modern Museum. The series, conceptualised by Series Editor Ashish Rajadhyaksha, and designed by Gauri Nagpal, was conceived in collaboration with the Shanghai-based West Heavens initiative supported by the Hong Kong-based art curator Chang Tsong-Zung. Three titles have been published in the series in 2021–2022.
