The Sahitya Rangabhoomi Pratishthan Trust has announced its unique annual fellowship of Rs. 1 lac each for 2017 to five young theatre artistes of outstanding talent. A key activity of the Trust, set up in February 2003, has been the annual award of five fellowships of Rs. 1 lac each to young theatre professionals. In the first three years the fellowships were awarded in the name of Madhu Ganu, founder of the Pratishthan while for the last 8 years the Pratishthan, generously supported by the Vinod & Saryu Doshi Foundation, awarded the fellowships in the name of Late Mr. Vinod Doshi. Until last year the Pratishthan has awarded 47 such fellowships to young theatre artistes. With the announcement of five Tendulkar-Dubey Memorial fellowships for 2017-2018, the Pratishthan has crossed the magic figure of 50 and the total tally stands at 52 fellowships of Rs.1 lac each.

Addressing the conference Mr. Satish Alekar. In the photo (Form L to R) Mohit Takalkar, Satish Alekar, Ashok Kulkarni, Dilip Majgaonkar, Kiran Yadnyopavit.

With this year onwards, the Fellowships are named after famous playwright Vijay Tendulkar and theatre director Satyadev Dubey. Both were well- wishers of the Pratishthan and gave active support and guidance for its development, In fact giving unconditional fellowships to young theatre professionals was Mr. Tendulkar’s idea. He not only initiated the idea but helped the Pratishthan to collect required funds for the programme.

The five fellows who have been awarded the fellowships for 2017 are Faezeh Jalali, Sheena Khalid, Bharavi, Ajeet Singh Palawat and Ashish Pathode.

The Sahitya Rangabhoomi Pratishthan Trust, formed by artists, has a clear mandate: to preserve and promote the performing arts and cater to the needs and aspirations of artists who have dedicated themselves to the service of their chosen art. The Trust tries to live up to this mandate by sponsoring young practicing theatre professionals as also supporting theatre artists in their twilight years. To these ends, it buys rights of literary publications and promotes publications of literary eminence. A significant feature of the fellowships is that the fellows are free to expend their grants as they feel best, no questions asked, no justification expected for the area selected for exploration. We only expect creative risk-taking. The fellows are selected by a committee of experts and the fellows are not only from Maharashtra but from all over India and from all languages. The criteria of selection is recipient’s contribution and level of dedication to his area of activity.

In addition to these fellowships, the Trust has also sponsored individual theatre productions, promoted theatre festivals and stepped in to support expenses towards hospitalisation and medical care of veteran artistes in need.

In the last two years the Pratishthan sponsored the publication of two books, Ajoon Tendulkar in Marathi (Ed: Rekha Sane Inamdar) and, in English, The Scenes We Made (Ed: Shanta Gokhale).

The five fellowships will be conferred to the artistes in a formal function at the hands of Theatre Scholar and Critic Ms. Pushpa Bhave on 26 February 2017 at Pandit Farms in Pune.

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