Chandrakant Kulkarni is the director, screenwriter and actor who has given Marathi theatre and cinema some of their most ambitious productions of the last three decades. Born on 15 October 1963 into a farming family in a small town of Marathwada, he moved to Aurangabad for his schooling at his mother's insistence, won prizes for debate and elocution, and at Government College, Aurangabad, co-founded the theatre group Jigisha, whose first Natya Sahavas festival came in May 1983. Between 1987 and 1990 he and several Jigisha colleagues moved to Mumbai.
He has directed more than fifty plays with groups such as Aavishkar and Chandralekha, among them Doctor Tumhi Suddha (1991), Chaar Chaughi (1992), Dhyanimani (1993), Chahul (1998) and Vijay Tendulkar's Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe. In April 1994 he staged Mahesh Elkunchwar's Wada Chirebandi, Magna Talyakathi and Yugant as a single eight-hour performance, a landmark of Indian theatre, and his Gandhi Virudh Gandhi (1995–96) followed in Gujarati and Hindi.
After acting in Amol Palekar's Bangarwadi (1995), he made his directorial debut in film with Bindhaast (1999), a silver-jubilee hit remade in southern languages, then Bhet (2002), Kay Dyacha Bola! (2005), Kadachit (2007), Tukaram (2012), Aajcha Divas Majha (2013) and Dhyanimani (2017). His honours include the Mahindra Nataraj Puraskar, the Maharashtra Rajya Sanskrutik Puraskar and Natyadarpan awards for best director.
