Sunil Shanbag

Sunil Shanbag
Shanbag in Mumbai, 2008
Born	(1956-10-07) 7 October 1956 (age 60)
Occupation	Stage director
Years active	1974–present

Sunil Shanbag (born 1956) is an Indian theatre director, screenwriter and documentary film-maker. He has graduated from Mumbai University, and although he didn't have any formal training in theatre, he has worked extensively with Satyadev Dubey, who considers him one of his foremost protégés.

In 1985, Shanbag founded the theatre company Arpana. Its work is characterised by "contemporary and original texts by Indian and international playwrights (in translation), strong performances, minimalist staging, and innovative use of music and design."

In 2007, Shanbag directed the critically acclaimed Cotton 56, Polyester 84 which won three META awards at the Mahindra Theatre Festival, including Best Original Script for its writer, Ramu Ramanathan. The play is a celebration of Mumbai, through the culture spawned by rapid industrialisation, specially in the mills of Girangaon.

In 2010, Shanbag opened the play S*x M*rality & Cens*rship. The play revolves around the censorship woes faced by Vijay Tendulkar's Sakharam Binder in Mumbai in 1974, juxtaposing this against the sanitising of tamasha traditions by middle-class conservatism. The play was funded by a grant from the India Foundation for the Arts and underwent research and rehearsals for almost a year. Ultimately, it was nominated for nine awards at the META Awards, with supporting actress Geetanjali Kulkarni finally winning for her performance. In the same year of 2010 he did a play written by Vivek Narayan .Based on Rabindranath Tagore's famous play DAK GHAR (translated into Hindi for this production by Ashok Mishra), and on true incidents from the life of the Polish doctor and storyteller Dr. Janusz Korczak, the play is a poignant tribute to the human spirit that gathers hope, even where there seems to be none. WALKING TO THE SUN is one of his best work . It brings together the dramatic and more vivid style of Indian storytelling with that of the more stark approach of a European work of art. It is both a requiem and a song of hope.

Also in 2010, through his play Dreams of Taleem, Shanbag tried to cope with the death of playwright Chetan Datar by incorporating Datar's play 1, Madhavbaug in a narrative that dealt with the isolation felt by its gay protagonists. According to The Hindu, it did not seem to ask any new questions in the areas of theatre and sexuality, "despite its strong performances and a script that was otherwise quite seamless."