Shanta Gokhale

Gokhale is an Indian writer who was born in Dahanu in the Palghar region of Maharashtra. Gokhale's family relocated to the Shivaji Park suburb of Mumbai in 1941 after her father, GG Gokahle, joined the staff of the newspaper Searchlight. Later, her father joined Bennett and Coleman. She attended Mahim's Bombay Scottish School for her education. She moved to England at the age of 15, where she attended Bristol University to earn her B.A. (Hons) in English literature. At the age of 21, she moved back to India and completed her M.A. (Hons) in English literature at the University of Mumbai. She then enrolled at Mumbai's Xavier's Institute of Communication to study communications and video production.

Initially publishing stories in both English and Marathi in a variety of journals, Gokhale ultimately began to write novels in the 1970s. ‘Rita Welinkar’, her debut book, was initially published in Marathi (and afterward, in English, in 1995). ‘Tya Varshi’, her second book, was released in 2008, seventeen years after her first. Later, in 2013, she translated it into English and released it under the title ‘Crowfall’. ‘The Engaged Observer’, an anthology of her works published in 2018, was compiled by Jerry Pinto Jerry Pinto is a prolific Indian novelist, journal >> Read More... , a personal friend of the author. In 2018, she intended to publish her memoirs under the working title ‘Here's Looking at You, Body’ and was released as ‘One Foot On The Ground: A Life Told Through The Body’ in 2019. Her book ‘Shivaji Park: Dadar 28: History, Places, People’, traces the history of the Mumbai locality where she resides and was published in March 2020. She has written screenplays for several documentaries and films like ‘Hathi Ka Anda’, ‘Ti Ani Itar’, and many others.

After returning to Mumbai she got herself involved with the theatre. She began producing plays such as ‘ Avinash Avinash is a Kannada actor, who has starred in Sou >> Read More... ’ in 1988 (directed by Dubey), ‘Dip and Dop’, and ‘Rosemary for Remembrance’ which had its world premiere at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in 2016. In 2000, she released ‘Playwright at the Centre: Marathi Drama from 1843 to the Present’, which was a critical analysis of Marathi theatre. She edited books like ‘The Scenes We Made: An Oral History of Experimental Theatre in Mumbai’ which was published in 2015. She has written translations of various plays by notable Marathi playwrights like Mahesh Elkunchwar Mahesh Elkunchwar is a playwright and screenplay w >> Read More... and has also worked on the renowned memoirs of legendary actress Durga Khote Durga Khote is a legendary actress of Indian cinem >> Read More... . She has won two national awards, Two Maharashtra state awards for literary creation for her novels, Sangeet Natak Academy Awards, and many others.