Shyam Benegal was an Indian film director, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker. Often regarded as the pioneer of parallel cinema, he is widely considered as one of the greatest filmmakers post 1970s. He has received several accolades, including eighteen National Film Awards, a Filmfare Award and a Nandi Award. In 2005, he was honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India's highest award in the field of cinema. In 1976, he was honoured by the Government of India with the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian honour of the country, and in 1991, he was awarded Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian honour for his contributions in the field of arts. He died on 23 December 2024, aged 90.
Babukodi Venkataramana Karanth widely known as B. V. Karanth was an Indian film director, playwright, actor, screenwriter, composer, and dramatist known for his works in the Kannada theatre, Kannada cinema, and Hindi cinema. One of the pioneers of the Parallel Cinema, Karanth was an alumnus of the National School of Drama (1962) and later, its director. He received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1976), six National Film Awards, and the civilian honor Padma Shri for his contributions towards the field of art.
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.
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.
Sachin Pilgaonkar, often known mononymously by his screen name Sachin, is an Indian actor, director, producer, writer and singer of Marathi and Hindi films. He has directed and acted in several Marathi films of the late 1980s and early 1990s. He has received several awards including two National Film Awards and two Filmfare Awards Marathi.
Satyadev Dubey was an Indian theatre director, actor, playwright, screenwriter & film director. He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1971.
Sachin Gupta is an Indian film producer, writer and director. He produces films under Chilsag Motion Pictures and is also an artistic director of Chilsag Chillies Theatre Company. He made his writing and directorial debut with the critically acclaimed film Paranthe Wali Gali (2014). He also shot to fame with Pakhi (2018). Gupta's sojourn into theatre started when he was 12 years old, and to date he has staged more than 100 shows around the world, working as an actor, director and playwright. His award-winning Off Broadway plays include Celebration of Life, Handicapped City, and Kailashnath weds Madhumati. He staged these in New York and in Toronto, Canada for which he got huge appreciation amongst theatre lovers in North America. Sachin Gupta was also the recipient of the Natya Bhushan award in 2012.
Chilsag Chillies is an Indian theatre company and the flagship LiveShow, Stageplay and musical production arm of the Chilsag Entertainment Network. The company has operations in US, UK, Canada and India and has a network of talented artists all over the world. Chilsag Chillies also maintains a global network of research centers in key cities around the world that provide inputs on the latest in world theatre. Founded in 2003 by Sachin Gupta, Chilsag Chillies Theatre Company prides itself in being one of the few theatre companies that showcase their own original creations. Within the short period of its existence, Chilsag Chillies Theatre Company has been able to set a benchmark of success in the field of theatre. The very first production of the company, “Celebration of Life”, was felicitated by the chief minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit and was also appreciated internationally when it was performed at the Factory Theatre, Toronto, Canada and Off-Broadway Theare, New York. The high standard set by the first production has only been matched, if not surpassed, by the succeeding productions.
Celebration of Life is a one-hour English play written and directed by Sachin Gupta.
Amole Gupte is an Indian screenwriter, actor, singer and director, known for his work on the 2007 film Taare Zameen Par as a creative director and screenwriter. He conceived the film along with his wife, Deepa Bhatia. He was the chairperson of the Children's Film Society, India from 2012 to 2015. And presently serves as a member of the advisory board of the Kautik International Student Film Festival.
Rajendra Gupta is an Indian film, television and theatre actor and director who is known for his television roles of Adina Beg Khan Sahib e Azam in 2010 series of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Pandit Jagannath in the 1990s Doordarshan fantasy television series Chandrakanta and Sudha's father – Jagat Narayan – in the 1998–2001 Sony TV drama Saaya.
Arvind Gaur is an Indian theatre director, actor trainer, social activist, street theatre worker and story teller. He is known for socially and politically relevant plays in India. Gaur's plays are contemporary and thought-provoking, connecting intimate personal spheres of existence to larger social political issues. His work deals with Internet censorship, communalism, caste issues, feudalism, domestic violence, crimes of state, politics of power, violence, injustice, social discrimination, marginalisation, and racism. Arvind is the founder of Asmita, which is a theatre group in Delhi.
Shyamanand Jalan was a Kolkata-based Indian theatre director, and actor. He is credited for the renaissance period of modern Indian theatre and especially the Hindi theatre in Kolkata from the 1960s to 1980s. He was the first to perform modernist Mohan Rakesh, starting with Ashadh Ka Ek Din in 1960 and in the coming years bridged the gap between Hindi theatre and Bengali theatre, by mounting Hindi productions of works by Bengali playwrights, like Badal Sircar's Evam Indrajit (1968) and Pagla Ghora (1971), which in turn introduced Sircar to rest of the country. In 2005, he directed his first and only film Eashwar Mime Co., which was an adaptation of Dibyendu Palit's story, Mukhabhinoy, by Vijay Tendulkar.
Handicapped City is an off-Broadway Theatre production written and directed by Indian playwright Sachin Gupta.
Sachin Kundalkar or Sacin Kuṇḍalakar is an Indian film director and screenplay writer who mostly works in Marathi cinema. He is known for his directorial works of Nirop (2007) and Gandha (2009). He has also written for the theatre. He is recipient of two National Film Awards, as a director for Nirop and as a screenwriter for Gandha, the first Marathi film to win Best Screenplay award since the category's institution in 1967.
Ajoka Theatre is a Pakistani not-for-profit arts organization based in Lahore, Punjab, with focus on producing and performing social theatrical stage productions, founded in 1984. The group was formed by director, actress and playwright, Madeeha Gauhar at peak of the tensions during the state of emergency under the regime of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. Ajoka Theatre received the prestigious Prince Claus Award in 2006 and the International Theatre Pasta Award in 2007.
Shriya Pilgaonkar is an Indian actress, director and producer who primarily works in Hindi films and web series. Born to actors Sachin Pilgaonkar and Supriya Pilgaonkar, she made her acting debut with the Marathi film Ekulti Ek (2013), for which she won the Best Debut Actress at the Maharashtra State Film Awards.
Chilsag Entertainment Network is an Indian film and theatre company based in Mumbai. Chilsag Chillies Theatre Company is the live show and musical production arm of the Chilsag Entertainment Network. The enterprise was founded in 2003 by Sachin Gupta.
The name Sachin is derived, via Indic languages like Bengali and Marathi, from the Sanskrit name Shachindra. Shachindra is a name given to Hindu god Indra which means Shachi's Indra. It is also a name of Hindu god Shiva. The literal meaning can be roughly translated into English as "the essence".
Pakhi (transl. bird) is a 2018 Indian crime drama directed and produced by the award-winning playwright and theatre director Sachin Gupta under Chilsag Entertainment Network in association with London Players. It is produced by Sachin Gupta, Sushma Gupta and Rashmi Bansal. The film stars Sumeet Kaul, Anamika Shukla, Anmol Goswami and Pihu Datta in the lead roles. The film is based on a true story of a 10 year old girl with focuses on child trafficking, flesh trade, child marriage, and rape.
