Vibhawari Deshpande is an Indian actress, writer and director who works in

Marathi theatre 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, ...

and

Marathi cinema Marathi cinema is an Indian film industry of Marathi-language motion pictures. It is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Based in old Mumbai, it is the oldest film industry of Indian cinema. The first Marathi film to be released in India was ''Shre ...

Career

Writer and director

Deshpande started her career with acting and off-screen works in college drama. She also attended various courses organised by

National School of Drama National School of Drama (NSD) is a theatre training institute situated at New Delhi, India. It is an autonomous organization under Ministry of Culture, Government of India. It was set up in 1959 by the Sangeet Natak Akademi and became an indepe ...

, Delhi and workshops conducted by noted theatre personality

Satyadev Dubey Satyadev Dubey (13 July 1936 – 25 December 2011) was an Indian theatre director, actor, playwright, screenwriter & film director. He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1971. He won the 1978 National Film Award for Best Scree ...

. While working for drama, she mainly worked off-screen in writing department. She has also written dialogues for the Marathi TV serial ''Agnihotra'' that aired on Star Pravaha. Deshpande is active in theater with an Indo-German group "

Grips The , or GRIPS, is an elite, highly selective research graduate school located in Minato, Tokyo. Funded by the Japanese Government, it has the status of List of national universities in Japan, national university. It is also one of Asia's leading ...

" that produces plays for children. Along with acting and writing scripts, she has also directed a

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

play ''Gumma Banda Gumma''.

Acting

Deshpande received her first acting break for a cameo role as a receptionist in the multi-award-winning 2004 film ''

Shwaas ''Shwas'' (Marathi: श्वास, ''The Breath'') is a Marathi film, released in 2004. It was India's official entry to the 2004 Oscars and was ranked 6th in the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film category. Its storyline is based o ...

''. Her next role came in

Smita Talwalkar Smita Talwalkar (5 September 1954 – 6 August 2014) was a Marathi film actress, producer and director. She won two National Film Awards as producer of the films ''Kalat Nakalat'' (1989) and ''Tu Tithe Mee'' (1998). Career Born as Smita Govilk ...

's production ''

Saatchya Aat Gharat ''Saatchya Aat Gharat'' is a 2004 Indian Marathi-language film released on 31 May 2004. The film is directed by Sanjay Surkar and produced by Smita Talwalkar. It is partly based upon a 2002 incident in the University of Pune campus when a studen ...

''. Here she played the role of Ketaki, one of the seven college students around whom the story revolved. She also worked in one of the documentaries directed by Dr. Jabbar Patel. She later on acted in few Hindi films doing side roles. Her big break came in 2009 when she played the historical role of Saraswati Phalke, wife of the father of Indian cinema

Dadasaheb Phalke Dhundiraj Govind Phalke (Pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, ̪ʱuɳɖiɾaːd͡ʒ pʰaːɭke, popularly known as Dadasaheb Phalke () (30 April 1870 – 16 February 1944), was an Indian producer-director-screenwriter, known as "the Father of In ...

, in the film ''

Harishchandrachi Factory ''Harishchandrachi Factory'' (; ) is a 2009 Indian Marathi-language biographical film written and directed by Paresh Mokashi. It is about Dadasaheb Phalke, who made the first Indian feature film ''Raja Harishchandra'' (1913), and starring Nandu ...

''. Deshpande's role was of a supportive wife who helped her husband in his journey towards making India's first full-length feature film ''

Raja Harishchandra ''Raja Harishchandra'' () is a 1913 Indian silent film directed and produced by Dadasaheb Phalke. It is often considered the first full-length Indian feature film. ''Raja Harishchandra'' features Dattatraya Damodar Dabke, Anna Salunke, Bhalc ...

''. She also received the Best Actress award by

MICTA Mahesh Vaman Manjrekar (Marathi pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, əɦeːʃ maːɲd͡zɾekəɾ born 16 August 1958) is an Indian actor, film director, screenwriter and producer who works primarily in Hindi films, alongside Marathi language, ...

for her role of Saraswati. In 2010, she played the role of Dwarka, wife of Guna, in the film ''

Natarang ''Natarang'', also spelled Natrang ( mr, नटरंग, an ornamental word for "artist", especially a theatre artist), is a 2010 Indian Marathi-language drama film directed by debutant Ravi Jadhav and starring Atul Kulkarni and Sonalee Kulkar ...

''. Based on the novel of same name by

Anand Yadav Anand Ratan Yadav (Marathi: आनंद रतन यादव; 30 November 1935 – 27 November 2016) was a Marathi writer from Maharashtra, India. He is best known for his autobiography ''Zombi'' (झोंबी). He was born on 30 November 1 ...

, Dwarka's character was of a wife who dislikes her husband's involvement in

Tamasha Tamasha ( mr, तमाशा) is a traditional form of Marathi theatre, often with singing and dancing, widely performed by local or travelling theatre groups within the state of Maharashtra, India."Tamasha", in James R. Brandon and Martin Banham ...

. In 2011, Deshpande portrayed another historic role of wife of one of the greatest Marathi singers and stage actors,

Bal Gandharva Narayan Shripad Rajhans, popularly known as Bal Gandharva, (26 June 1888 – 15 July 1967) was a famous Marathi singer and a stage actor. He was known for his roles in female characters in Marathi plays, since women were not allowed to act on ...

. Her role in

the film The Film is a 2005 Indian thriller film directed by Junaid Memon also produced along with Amitabh Bhattacharya. The film stars Mahima Chaudhry, Khalid Siddiqui, Ananya Khare, Chahat Khanna, Ravi Gossain, Vaibhav Jhalani and Vivek Madan in lea ...

supported the lead title role of Bal Gandharva, who enacted female roles in theater when women did not act.

Filmography

Personal life

Born and brought up in

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, Deshpande did her schooling from Garware High School,

. She did her graduation from

Fergusson College Fergusson College is an autonomous public-private college offering various courses in the streams of arts and science in the city of Pune, India. It was founded in 1885 by the Deccan Education Society. Professor Vaman Shivram Apte was its fir ...

in Arts and

Mass Communication Mass communication is the process of imparting and exchanging information through mass media to large segments of the population. It is usually understood for relating to various forms of media, as its technologies are used for the dissemination o ...

. Her father, Upendra Dixit runs the book store International Book Service set up by her grandfather in Pune in 1931 and her mother Maneesha Dixit was a scholar, writer and theater critic. Her grandmother

Muktabai Dixit Muktabai Dixit (Devanagari: मुक्ताबाई दीक्षित) (1901 or 1902 - 1977) was a Marathi writer from Maharashtra, India. Biography She was born in December 1901 in the town of Edalabad in Khandesh. After finishing her ...

was also a famous writer and playwright in Marathi.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Deshpande, Vibhawari Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Actresses in Marathi cinema Actresses in Marathi theatre Indian theatre directors Writers from Pune Indian women dramatists and playwrights Actresses in Hindi cinema Indian film actresses Indian stage actresses Actresses from Pune Indian women screenwriters 21st-century Indian actresses 21st-century Indian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Indian women writers 21st-century Indian writers Women writers from Maharashtra Indian women theatre directors Screenwriters from Maharashtra 21st-century Indian screenwriters