Satish Alekar

Satish Vasant Alekar (born 30 January 1949) is an Indian Marathi playwright, actor, theatre director and professor. A founder member of the Theatre Academy, Pune, he is best known for his plays Mickey ani Memsahib (1973), Mahanirvan (1974), Mahapoor (1975), Begum Barve (1979), Atirekee (1990), Pidhijat (2003), Ek Divas Mathakade (2012), and Thakishi Samvad (2024). Along with Mahesh Elkunchwar and Vijay Tendulkar, he is considered among the most influential and progressive playwrights in modern Marathi theatre and Indian theatre.

He founded and headed the Centre for Performing Arts at the University of Pune from 1996 to 2009 after declining the directorship of the National School of Drama. He has also served as an adjunct professor at Duke University (1994); the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, as a Fulbright Scholar (2003), and the Department of Theatre and Film Studies at the University of Georgia.

Alekar received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Playwriting (Marathi) in 1994 from the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2012. Following his retirement, he served as Distinguished Professor at Savitribai Phule Pune University from 2013 to September 2022 and continues as a visiting faculty member at the university and the National School of Drama in Delhi. He has also appeared in Marathi and Hindi films, including Ventilator (2016).