Vishnudas Bhave

Vishnudas Bhave (died 9 August 1901) was the leading dramatist of Maharashtra, India and considered as pioneer of Marathi theatre.

In 1853, Bhave came to Mumbai and in the beginning he staged his "Khel-Akhyan" (play-narrations in verse) and plays in the wada of Vishvanath Shimpi in the Girgaum locality of the city.

The King of the princely state of Sangli, Chintamanrao 'Appa Saheb' Patwardhan gave his patronage and encouragement to Bhave, who had extended his drama activity to Mumbai and Pune.

His play was much admired by the Governor's Secretary... religious spirit, scientific singing by a sort of chorus in the midst of dialogues by other characters, crude dances and quaint costumes and make-up and certain skillful sword-play were their outstanding qualities.

Before 1843 in Tamil Nadu, Tanjore Maratha king Raja Shahaji Bhonsle had written plays,[2] which were performed in the court and the temple.

After few years, the award was presented annually in a ceremony held in Sangli on every 5 November (Marathi Rangbhumi Din).

[5] Notable recipients of the award are: Pralhad Keshav Atre, Purushottam Laxman Deshpande, Jyotsna Bhole, Hirabai Barodekar, Dilip Prabhavalkar, Nilu Phule, Jabbar Patel, Sudha Karmarkar, Prabhakar Panshikar, Mohan Agashe, Vijay Tendulkar (2000), Vikram Gokhale (2015),[6] Mohan Joshi (2017),[7] Rohini Hattangadi (2019), and Satish Alekar (2022).