Bhisham Sahni

Bhisham Saini was born on 8th August 1915 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He did an MA (English literature) from a Government College in Lahore, Pakistan. He was a writer, actor, teacher, translator and a polyglot. He saw the partition of India and participated in the Quit India Movement, in 1942. When the countries parted, he was so affected that he decided to express himself through his literary works. He is famous for his work ‘ Tamas A 1988 Television film based on Hindi Novel of the >> Read More... ’ also known as Darkness, which depicted his view of the aftermath of the partition of 1947.

Tamas was changed into a movie by filmmaker Govind Nihalani Born on 19 August 1940, Govind Nihalani hails from >> Read More... , where he was the lead character Karmo. He worked as an actor with his elder brother Balraj for a year starting in 1949. He decided to join an organization aiming at bringing a cultural renaissance in independent India, namely the Indian People’s Theatre Association. He wrote several plays while working on the stage as an actor. Later, he joined Zakir Hussain College, University of Delhi as a lecturer in the department of English language.

He was proficient in many languages, including Punjabi, Sanskrit, Russian, and Urdu. He worked as a translator by translating multiple Russian books into Hindi for the Foreign Language Publishing House in Moscow. He debuted with the film ‘Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho!’ with a lead role in 1984. His last movie released in 2002 was ‘Mr. and Mrs. Iyer’. He received multiple awards for all his work throughout his life including the highest civilian award, the Padma Shri, and the Padma Bhushan he received in 1969 and 1998 respectively. He has also received the highest literary honor in India, The Sahitya Akademi Fellowship in 2002, and the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1975 for a team.