Mahesh Champaklal

Mahesh Champaklal is an actor from Gujarat in India. He was born on 25 October in Mbale in East Africa. He is famous as an Indian Dramatist, a stage actor, and a director. He was born in Africa, but he has his roots in Gujarat. Mahesh worked for the commercial Gujarati theatre from 1973 to 1981. This work situated in Mumbai, was in Bombay at that time. During this time, he acted in the plays by the Indian National Theatre and the Bahuroopi. He also got to work with Pravin Joshi Pravin Joshi was an Indian stage actor and directo >> Read More... , Arvind Joshi Arvind Joshi (1936 – 29 January 2021), a renowned >> Read More... , Vijay Dutt, and Vishnukumar Vyas. After 1981, he quit the Gujarati commercial theatre. Since then, he has started working as a professor of Dramatics at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda.

This university is more popularly known as the M.S. University. At M.S. University, he worked on his thesis called Bharatmunio Abhinaysiddhant. This thesis is translated as Bharatmuni Acting Theory. He received his Ph.D. degree in 1987 for the same. Later, he also received a Ph.D. in Gujarati Literature in 1996. For this second Ph.D., his work was called Natakma Bhasha. It translated as Language of the Plays. From 1992 to 1998, he served as a member of the Gujarati Sangeet Natak Akademi. From 1995 to 1999, he served as the Head of the Department of Dramatics. From 2002 to 2003 and from 2005 onwards, he served as the Dean of the Faculty of Performing Arts. From 2014 to 2016, he served as a fellow of IIAS.

From 2022 onwards also, he served in the same institution with a fellowship on the project called Revisiting The Mahabharata: An Analytical and comparative study of Mahabharata characters as depicted by Vyas Bhasa and Tagore with sp. ref. to the text and performance of Bhasa's plays and Tagore's Dramatic Poems (Natyakabya). He works as a Tagore Fellow at IIAS Shimla on the same project. He was also honored with a fellowship in Shimla in 2014, and a Senior Fellowship, Ministry of Culture, Govt. Of India in 2019. He has worked as a writer, actor, and even a director in all kinds of theatre. Some of his famous productions are Paritran, Shatkhand, Raktabeej, Chhadechwok, Kayapalat, Maladevi, Moksh, Snehadheen, Parakh, Agni Ane Varsad, Param Maheshwar and Sikandar Sani.

Sangeet Natak Akademi selected him as the Young Stage Talent. This was due to his work in directing the play called Grahan. The play was written by Sitanshu Yashaschandra Sitanshu Yashaschandra Mehta, also known as Sitans >> Read More... . Mahesh has researched, authored, and published four books in Gujarati on Bharata’s Natyashastra and three books in Gujarati on theatre criticism. The books were acknowledged and awarded by Gujarati Sahitya Parishad as well as Gujarati Sahitya Akademi. University Granth Nirman Board has published his works called Bharat Natyashastra - Abhinay, Bharat Natyashastra – Natyaprayog, and Bharat Natyashastra - Adhunik Sandarbho. Gujarati Sahitya Parishad also awarded these works.

Amir Khusrow, one of his roles, has been praised and performed at various state-level and national-level stage festivals. His work called the Adhunik Gujarati Natak- Prat Ane Prayog and Rangdwar, was awarded by the Gujarati Sahitya Akademi. He translated the play called The Fire and the Rain, which was written by Girish Karnad Born on 19th May 1938, Girish Raghunath Karnad is >> Read More... , which is now called Agni Ane Varsad in Gujarati. He received the Translation Prize from Sahitya Akademi and the translation prize from the Gujarat Sahitya Akademi. Gujarat Sangeet Natak Akademi also gave him the Best Stage Actor award for his performance in the play Hayvadan by director Jagdish Bhatt where Mahesh Champaklal played the role of Kapil. He also received the Jayshankar Sundari Award for this.