Sunil Shanbag (born 1956) is an Indian theatre director, screenwriter and documentary film-maker. He has graduated from Mumbai University, and although he didn't have any formal training in theatre, he has worked extensively with

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 Scre ...

, 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 (in translation), strong performances, minimalist staging, and innovative use of music and design."

Plays

In 2007, Shanbag directed the critically acclaimed ''Cotton 56, Polyester 84'' which won three META awards at the Mahindra Theatre Festival, including Best Original Script for its writer,

Ramu Ramanathan Ramakrishnan Ramanathan popularly known as Ramu Ramanathan is an Indian playwright-director with acclaimed plays to his credit. His list of plays includes ''Cotton 56, Polyester 84''; ''Jazz''; ''Comrade Kumbhakarna''; and more recently, ''Post ...

. The play is a celebration of

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

, through the culture spawned by rapid industrialisation, specially in the mills of

Girangaon Girangaon (literally "mill village") was a name of an area now part of central Mumbai, India, which at one time had almost 130 textile mills, with the majority being cotton mills. The mills of Girangaon contributed significantly to the prosperi ...

. In 2010, Shanbag opened the play ''S*x M*rality & Cens*rship''. The play revolves around the censorship woes faced by

Vijay Tendulkar Vijay Dhondopant Tendulkar (6 January 1928 – 19 May 2008) was a leading Indian playwright, movie and television writer, literary essayist, political journalist, and social commentator primarily in Marāthi. His Marathi plays established him as ...

Sakharam Binder ''Sakharam Binder'' (Sakharam, the Binder) is a play by Indian playwright Vijay Tendulkar written in Marathi and first performed in 1972. It was banned in India in 1974. It was produced and directed by Kamlakar Sarang. Synopsis Sakharam Binder, t ...

in Mumbai in 1974, juxtaposing this against the sanitising of

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 ...

traditions by middle-class conservatism. The play was funded by a grant from the

India Foundation for the Arts India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) is a national, non-profit, the grantmaking organisation that supports the practice, research and education in the arts in India. Established as a public trust in 1993, IFA is headquartered in Bangalore. Its fo ...

and underwent research and rehearsals for almost a year. Ultimately, it was nominated for nine awards at the META Awards, with supporting actress Geetanjali Kulkarni finally winning for her performance. Also in 2010, through his play ''Dreams of Taleem'', Shanbag tried to cope with the death of playwright Chetan Datar by incorporating Datar's play ''1, Madhavbaug'' in a narrative that dealt with the isolation felt by its gay protagonists. According to

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

, it did not seem to ask any new questions in the areas of theatre and sexuality, "despite its strong performances and a script that was otherwise quite seamless." In 2011, Shanbag presented his musical, ''Stories in a Song''. The show was conceived by noted classical vocalist Shubha Mudgal and percussionist Aneesh Pradhan for the 2011 Baaja Gaaja festival in Pune. According to Mumbai Mirror, the stories in the play "reflected the socio-historical times in which they happened, and are lightly lined with satirical or sympathetic comment." In 2012, Shanbag was invited to perform a

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...

adaptation of All's Well That Ends Well as part of the Globe to Globe festival in London, in which all 37 of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's plays were performed in 37 different languages at

Shakespeare's Globe Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse for which William Shakespeare wrote his plays, in the London Borough of Southwark, on the south bank of the River Thames. The original theatre was built in ...

. The play was well received in the UK press, with

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

giving it a four-star rating, and the Arts Desk stating, "Shakespeare's problem play is solved by a buoyant Gujarati staging from Mumbai." Titled ''Maro Piyu Gayo Rangoon'' in India, the play had previously premiered in Mumbai, with veteran theatre critic

Shanta Gokhale Shanta Gokhale (born 14 August 1939) is an Indian writer, translator, journalist and theatre critic. She is best known for her works ''Rita Welinkar'' and ''Tya Varshi''. Early life and education Born in Dahanu in Palghar district of Maharasht ...

describing it as "a truly remarkable achievement". In 2014, the play was invited back to the Globe for another run of shows in a month that marked the 450th birth anniversary of Shakespeare.

Films

Shanbag has worked with Shyam Benegal and was a co-author, along with

Shama Zaidi Shama Zaidi (born 25 September 1938) is an Indian screenplay writer, costume designer, art director, theatre person, art critic, and documentary film maker. She is married to director M. S. Sathyu. Shama Zaidi Was Honored with Lifetime Achieve ...

, for the television serials ''Yatra'' and ''

Bharat Ek Khoj ''Bharat Ek Khoj'' () is a 53-episode Indian historical drama based on the book '' The Discovery of India'' (1946) by Jawaharlal Nehru that covers a 5,000-year history of India from its beginnings to independence from the British in 1947. The ...

''. In 1993, he produced ''Maihar Raag'', which won the

National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Film The National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Film is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organization set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of several awar ...

in 1994. In 2009, Shanbag directed the short film, ''The Sword and the Spear'', which was based on an international tour undertaken by contemporary dancer

Astad Deboo Astad Deboo (13 July 194710 December 2020) was an Indian contemporary dancer and choreographer. He was considered a pioneer of modern dance in India. Through his career he collaborated with artists including Pina Bausch, Alison Becker Chase a ...

and his troupe of

Thang-ta Huyen langlon is an Indian martial art from Manipur. In the Meitei language, means war while or can mean net, knowledge or art. consists of two main components: thang-ta (armed combat) and sarit sarak (unarmed fighting). The primary weapons ...

martial arts performers from

Manipur Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a state in Northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It also borders two regions of ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shanbag, Sunil Indian male screenwriters Indian theatre directors Indian male dramatists and playwrights 1956 births Living people Hindi theatre Screenwriters from Mumbai Indian television writers Indian documentary film directors Film directors from Mumbai Hindi screenwriters Hindi film producers Film producers from Mumbai Male television writers