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{{Short description|Indian playwright (1935–2016)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=June 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Gopal Sharman
| birth_date = {{Birth date |df=yes|1935|8|19}}
| birth_place = [[Calcutta]], [[India]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2016|06|16|1935|8|19}}
| death_place = [[New Delhi]], [[India]]
| occupation = {{hlist|Playwright|poet|journalist}}
| known_for = English play based on the ''Ramayana''
| spouse = [[Jalabala Vaidya]]
| children = 2
}}
{{Refimprove|date=July 2023}}

'''Gopal Sharman''' (19 August 1935 – 16 June 2016<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/theatre/The-stage-his-muse/article14397150.ece |title=The stage, his muse |first=Diwan | last=Singh Bajeli |date=2016-06-23 |website=[[The Hindu]] |access-date=2017-10-10}}</ref>) was an Indian playwright known for his dramatic English version of ''[[The Ramayana]]'',<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sharman|first1=Gopal|title=The Ramayab|date=20 May 2005|publisher=Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan|location=New Delhi|isbn=81-7276-329-8|edition=First}}</ref> which has been presented on stage more than 2,000 times. His Akshara Theatre<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/art-and-culture/bidding-farewell-to-the-entertainer-gopal-sharman/story-9U8G0EeNQx8asHJrtEN0tO.html|title=Bidding farewell to the entertainer, Gopal Sharman|date=8 July 2016}}</ref> is a hub of cultural activity in [[New Delhi]] and is studied by architecture students.

==Early life and career==
Born in [[Calcutta]], India, on 19 August 1935, Gopal was the sixth child of Buddhidhan Sharman, a medical doctor, and his wife Savitri. Both parents were [[Sanskrit]] scholars and fought for India's independence from British rule.

Sharman started his working life as a journalist in [[Lucknow]] and Calcutta but shifted to [[Delhi]] in 1958, where he began writing on the performing arts for several major Indian newspapers. He later moved to [[London]] where he wrote on the arts for ''[[The Times]]'' and ''[[The Sunday Times]]''. His book on [[music of India|Indian music]], ''Filigree in Sound'', was published in London by [[André Deutsch]]. He also wrote columns for ''[[The Washington Post]]'' in the United States.

==Theatrical career==
He rose to prominence as a playwright and director with his very first production, ''Full Circle'', a collection of stories and poems performed by his actress wife, [[Jalabala Vaidya]]. The production was of contemporary India, mixing together poverty, classical Indian thought, comic asides, and cobweb-shrouded government departments.

''Full Circle'' had its London premiere at the [[Mercury Theatre]]. ''The Sunday Times'' hailed Sharman as a "new major poet" and said of Jalabala Vaidya: "she performs exquisitely." ''[[The Guardian]]'' described Sharman as "a Renaissance man who would leave any Medici panting well in the rear'".

The [[Royal Shakespeare Company]] invited him to bring a play to its World Theatre Season. Sharman returned to India to write his dramatic, contemporary version of the 5,000-year-old Indian epic ''[[Ramayana]]'' in English. The four-act play retells the epic story from a contemporary viewpoint, but without any loss of reverence.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Vaidya|first1=Anasuya|title=Gopal Sharman|url=http://www.aksharatheatre.com/#!gopal-sharman/c19fw|website=www.aksharatheatre.com|publisher=wix.com|access-date=1 February 2016|archive-date=30 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140130142114/http://www.aksharatheatre.com/#!gopal-sharman/c19fw|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Sharman's version of ''The Ramayana'' is widely acclaimed in India, with more than 2,000 performances to date. It has played on London's [[West End theatre|West End]]; on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] and at the [[United Nations Headquarters]] in New York City; at the [[Smithsonian Institution]]<ref>{{cite journal|last1=R. Morris|first1=James|title=Smithsonian Institution|journal=Man and His Culture|date=15 March 1975}}</ref> in Washington, D.C.; the National Theatres of Finland and Canada — even in the Bahamas and the Fiji Islands — and {{citation needed span|text=in more cities and towns in India than any other theatrical production since after Independence.|date=May 2024}}

When ''The Ramayana'' played in New York, ''[[The New York Times]]'' hailed Sharman's play as "India's Gift to Broadway"<ref>{{cite news|last1=Shephard|first1=Richard|title=About New York|agency=The New York Times Company|issue=24 January 1975|work=The New York Times}}</ref> On the U.S. West Coast, poet Gene Detro wrote in Portland's ''[[The Oregon Journal]]'': "Both poet playwright Gopal Sharman and his actress wife Jalabala Vaidya are possessed of genius … Sharman's script fuses poetic power with the pacing of a very fine film editor".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Detro|first1=Gene|title=Performance held "Strong Magic"|issue=10 May 1974|publisher=The Oregon Journal}}</ref>

==The Akshara Theatre==
[[File:OpenAirTheatre.jpg|thumbnail|The Akshara Outdoor Pipal Tree Theatre created by Sharman]]
Sharman created an arts complex in the [[Lutyens Bungalow Zone]] in New Delhi called the Akshara National Classical Theatre. He designed and built it himself, using his own stone carvings as embellishments. The complex houses three theatres, television production studios and a gallery. The couple also worked and lived there.

==Television work==
Sharman made a series of television programmes and documentaries from the mid-1980s. These include the ''India Alive'' series, ''The Kashmir Story'', ''The Sufi Way'', ''Music Alive'' and ''My Life Is My Song'', all telecast nationally. His 11-part series ''India'' was shown on the American [[PBS]] network.

==Works==
Sharmam's plays include:
* ''Alice & Humpty Dumpty''
* ''The Bhagavad Gita''
* ''Full Circle''
* ''I, Galileo Galilei''
* ''In Goethe's Magical World''
* ''India Alive''
* ''Jeevan Geet''
* ''Karma''
* ''Larflarflarf''
* ''Let's Laugh Again''
* ''The Ramayana''
* ''This and That''

His television work includes:

* ''Kathanjali'', a five-part series based on his own stories as well as Tagore's ''[[Gitanjali]]'' and ''The Kabuliwala''
* ''India Alive'', a 31-part series
* ''The Kashmir Story'', a two-and-a-half-hour documentary
* ''Music Alive'', an eight-part series
* ''My Life Is My Song'', his musical documentary
* ''Sufi Way'', a six-part series<ref>{{cite web|last1=Vaidya|first1=Anasuya|title=Gopal Sharman|url=http://www.aksharatheatre.com/#!gopal-sharman/c19fw|website=www.aksharatheatre.com|access-date=1 February 2016|archive-date=30 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140130142114/http://www.aksharatheatre.com/#!gopal-sharman/c19fw|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Sharman wrote four books:
*''Filigree in Sound'' on Indian music, published by Andre Deutsch of London
*''The Ramayana'', the epic as a play in English, published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
*''Don’t Miss It'', the story of the Akshara Theatre's beginnings, published by the Akshara Press
*''Karma'', an [[Upanishadic]] musical, published by the Akshara Press<ref>{{cite web|last1=Vaidya|first1=Anasuya|title=Gopal Sharman|url=http://www.aksharatheatre.com/#!gopal-sharman/c19fw|website=www.aksharatheatre.com|access-date=1 February 2016|archive-date=30 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140130142114/http://www.aksharatheatre.com/#!gopal-sharman/c19fw|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharman, Gopal}}
[[Category:1935 births]]
[[Category:2016 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian journalists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian poets]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian journalists]]
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[[Category:Dramatists and playwrights from Delhi]]
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[[Category:Dramatists and playwrights from West Bengal]]
[[Category:Indian founders]]
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[[Category:Poets from Delhi]]
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[[Category:Poets from West Bengal]]
[[Category:Writers from Kolkata]]
[[Category:Writers from Lucknow]]
[[Category:Writers from New Delhi]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian male journalists]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian male journalists]]

Gopal Sharman - Revision history

MarcellaBehrend at 00:41, 30 April 2026