It was founded in year 1905 by Anant Waman Barve with the help of Babajirao Rane of "Rajapurkar Natak Mandali" and Mujumdar, manager of Kirloskar Natak Mandali.
He floated the idea of having a central body for Marathi theatre to bring together these drama companies on a common platform to solve problems faced by them.
Finally many drama companies agreed to an annual gathering and Barve was chosen as its Hon.
The first Sammelan was presided by Babasaheb Khaparde a well known Leader of social and political movement in Maharashtra.
So far every year Meet is arranged at different locations in India where Marathi drama is popular.