साहित्य रंगभूमी प्रतिष्ठानचे अशोक कुलकर्णी यांचे निधन

May 4, 2021 Pune

 Ashok Kulkarni, the managing trustee of Sahitya Rangabhoomi Pratishthan, which has aided the theatre community throughout India, died on Tuesday at the age of 84.

Kulkarni, also known as Ashok Kaka, had recently had surgery, but his health quickly deteriorated. He was sent to the Prayag Hospital.

Kulkarni was born and raised in Belgaum, where he attended school and college. During his career, he held key positions at organizations such as the "Indian Demographic Research Institute." Several experimental theatre and film practitioners befriended him during his time in Mumbai. It was during this time when legends like Satyadev Dubey, Vijay Tendulkar, Girish Karnad, and Govind Nihalani began their careers. Kulkarni later retired from Walchand Industries after holding a key position there. Following his retirement, he wanted to return to his favorite field of theatre. 

In the last two decades, he has remained behind the scenes and made a significant contribution to theatre.

He established the Vinod Doshi Fellowship to recognize and reward new and emerging performers in the performing arts. Later, these fellowships were awarded as the Tendulkar-Dubey Fellowship and the Madhu Ganu fellowship.   These grants have been awarded to 72 artists so far.

From 2008 through 2020, he constantly led the Vinod Doshi theatre festival and the Saarang festival, adding significant value to the city of Pune. Sahitya Rangabhoomi Pratishthan published several publications, including ‘Scenes We Made,' which documented the history of theatre, and ‘Ajoon Tendulkar,' which was written by stalwarts about Vijay Tendulkar's career in writing, theatre, and filmmaking.

The novel ‘Prayogik Rangabhoomi - Teen Ank' received the Sahitya Akademi Puraskar recently. For one and a half years, ‘Rangabhaan,' a workshop for aspiring playwrights, was organized under the auspices of Sahitya Rangabhoomi Pratishthan with his support. He was still striving to raise theatre practitioners in today's Covid times, and he was aiming to help them see theatre in a fresh light. His death has left a huge hole in the art world.