Leading Punjabi playwright and theatre personality Gursharan Singh popularly known as bhajji died on 28 September 2011. Gursharan Singh was known to have developed the character of Bhai Manna Singh through his plays.
Well known theatre personality Singh in his lifetime had penned around 70 plays.
He started the tradition of theatre in Punjab and was known as Baba Bohar (towering personality) of Punjabi theatre. IPTA movement swept Punjab in the 40s but theatre was completely absent after the partition. Then in the 50s he started his theatre group in Amritsar. He has nurtured and groomed personalities like Kewal Dhaliwal, an alumnus of National School of Drama.
A die-hard leftist and sympathiser of the Naxal movement, Gursharan Singh is also the only theatre personality who stood up against the militancy movement which rocked Punjab during the 80s and 90s. When not many had the courage to step out of their homes, Bhaji along with his teams toured the hinterland of Punjab, staging plays like hamak Nagare dee, Bhai Mana Singh, Miti da Mul which attacked the movement directly.
He worked relentlessly for an egalitarian society, gender eqaulity and workers’ rights. He served as a chairman of the theatre group Pulse Manch.
Gursharan Singh won several awards from Kalidas Samman to Kala Ratan awarded by the National Sangeet Natak Akademy.
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