Deenanath Mangeshkar was an Indian actor, a Natya Sangeet musician and a Hindustani classical vocalist who was active in Marathi theatre. He is also the father of well-known singers Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Meena Khadikar and Usha Mangeshkar as well as composer Hridaynath Mangeshkar.
Narayan Shripad Rajhans, popularly known as Bal Gandharva, was a famous Marathi singer and stage actor. He was known for his roles as female characters in Marathi plays, since women were not allowed to act on stage during his time.
Ganesh Balawant Nawathe, better known as Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki, was an Indian vocalist, composer and scholar of Indian classical, semi-classical, and devotional music. While he distinguished himself in Hindustani music, he is also credited for the revival of the Marathi musical theatre in the 1960s. Jitendra Abhisheki has been praised as being "among the stalwarts of Hindustani classical music who mastered other musical forms such as thumri, tappa, bhajan, and bhavgeet. His work in Marathi natyasangeet is well-known."
Rahul Deshpande is an Indian classical music singer. He is the recipient of a National Film Award for his work in Me Vasantrao. He is the grandson of Vasantrao Deshpande.
Vishnudas Bhave and was the leading dramatist of Maharashtra, India and considered as pioneer of Marathi theatre. He was born in Sangli and he staged the first Marathi-language play Sita Swayamvar in Sangli in 1843. In this venture, Bhave was supported by the then king of the princely state of Sangli. After the success of the play Sita Swayamvar, Bhave staged plays on various other episodes of the Ramayana. He traveled with his troupes for the plays. He also ventured into puppet shows. Bhave died on 9 August 1901.
Balwant Pandurang Kirloskar, popularly known as Annasaheb Kirloskar, was a Marathi playwright from the Bombay Presidency in British India.
Bhaskar Raghunath Bakhale was a Hindustani classical vocalist, a composer, and a teacher.
Govind Ballal Deval (1855–1916) was a Marathi playwright from Bombay Presidency, British India.
Krushnaji Prabhakar Khadilkar was a Marathi writer from Bombay Presidency, British IndiaIndia. George calls him "a prominent lieutenant of Lokmanya Tilak". He was editor of Kesari, Lokmanya and Navakal. The subject of navakal is political, trade and market price Khadilkar in the beginning of his career wrote prose-plays, but achieved "even greater recognition" with plays like Svayamvara – which had songs which were based on Indian classical music. The notability of his dramatic technique, in his fifteen plays, was to "endow ancient Hindu legends and tales with contemporary political significance". The Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature, remarks that while Annasaheb Kirloskar "laid the foundation of popular sangit natak", it saw its great rise and gradual decline with the advent of Khadilkar. It considers Khadilkar along with Bal Gandharva as "the architect of what later on came to be called the golden age of the Marathi drama".
Mahesh Kale is an Indian Classical vocalist renowned for his specialization in Indian Classical (Hindustani), Semi-Classical, Devotional music including Natya Sangeet. Mahesh Kale won the 63rd National Film Award as the Best Playback Singer, for the song Aruni Kirani in the film Katyar Kaljat Ghusli. He is a disciple of Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki. He was ranked nineteenth in The Times of India's Top 20 Most Desirable Men of Maharashtra in 2017.
Ganesh Govind Bodas (1880–1965), also known as Ganpatrao Bodas, was an Indian stage actor known for performing Marathi plays.
Marathi theatre is theatre in the Marathi language, mostly originating or based in the state of Maharashtra in India, and elsewhere with Marathi diaspora. Starting in the middle of the 19th century, it flourished in the 1950s and 1960s. Today, it continues to have a marked presence in the State of Maharashtra with a loyal audience base, when most theatre in other parts of India have had tough time facing the onslaught of cinema and television. Its repertoire ranges from musicals, humorous social plays, farces, historical plays like 'Vedat Marathe Veer Daudale Saat' by Bashir Momin Kavathekar, to experimental plays and serious drama of the 1970s onwards, by Vijay Tendulkar, P. L. Deshpande, Mahesh Elkunchwar and Satish Alekar, which have influenced theatre throughout India. In the post-independence era, Bengali theatre, and Marathi theatre have been at the forefront of innovations and significant dramaturgy in Indian theatre.
Sangeet Sharada is an 1899 Marathi Sangeet Natak, written and directed by playwright Govind Ballal Deval. The play is considered as the first play in Marathi to showcase the social problems and broke the norms by dealing with the subject of child marriage when dramatic literature in India mainly focused on historical-mythological narrations.
Jaymala Shiledar (21 August 1926 – 8 August 2013) was an Indian Hindustani classical singer and theatre actress. She had appeared in many sangeet nataks where she played various roles. Along with singing for the roles she played, she had also composed music for some. In the career span of over 50 years, she appeared in more than 4500 shows. She was married to co-actor singer Jayaram Shiledar along with whom she established a production banner of "Marathi Rangabhoomi". The pair together is credited for revamping the Marathi music industry. She was presented with Padma Shri award in 2013.
Katyar Kaljat Ghusali is a Marathi musical play, originally released in 1967. The play gained such popularity that more than 1,000 shows were staged in a very short period. The play was written by Purushottam Darvhekar. The story depicts clash of two gharanas (schools) of Indian classical music. Pt. Jeetendra Abhisheki composed the padas.
Pandit Prasad Sawkar is an Indian vocalist, and scholar of Indian classical, semi-classical, and devotional music. He received prestigious Padma Shri award in the year 2006 for his work in music and Sangeet Natak
Ramdas Shantaram Kamat was an Indian musician. He worked in Sangeet Natak, Marathi theatre.
Krishnaji Ganesh Phulambrikar (1898–1974), popularly known as Master Krishnarao, was a musical genius - an Indian vocalist, classical musician and composer of Hindustani music. He was credited with the creation of three Hindustani ragas and several bandishes. Phulambrikar, a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, was also the music composer of several movies, including Dharmatma, a 1935 Hindi film starring Bal Gandharva, a renowned Marathi singer and Padosi, a 1941 directorial venture of V. Shantaram. The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan, in 1971, for his contributions to music.
Keerti Shiledar, sometimes spelled Kirti Shiledar, was an Indian singer of Hindustani classical music and an actress on Marathi musical stage. She presided over the 98th Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Natya Sammelan held in 2018.
Katyar Kaljat Ghusali is the soundtrack to the 2015 Marathi film of the same name directed by Subodh Bhave based on the 1967 stage play by Purushottam Darvhekar. The film features 17 songs—which included original songs composed by Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy and the recreations of original music from the play composed by Jitendra Abhisheki and written by Darvhekar. The original songs had lyrics written by Sameer Samant, Mangesh Kangane, Mandar Cholkar and Prakash Kapadia. The soundtrack was released by Zee Music Company on 16 October 2015.
