Om Shivpuri

Om Shivpuri (Hindi: ओम शिवपुरी; 1938 – 1990) was an Indian theatre actor-director and character actor in Hindi films.

A National School of Drama, New Delhi alumnus, Om Shivpuri became the first chief of the National School of Drama Repertory Company (1964) and one of its actors; he later founded an important theatre group of its era, in New Delhi: Dishantar.

Biography

Born in Rajasthan, Om Shivpuri started his career by working at Jaipur Radio Station, where Sudha Shivpuri (who later became his wife) was working at the time.

Later, they joined National School of Drama, New Delhi and were trained under theatre doyen Ebrahim Alkazi. After graduating in 1964, they joined the newly formed, NSD Repertory Company as actors. Om Shivpuri was also the first chief of the NSD Repertory Company and remained so till 1976, when Manohar Singh followed him.

Meanwhile, Om Shivpuri and Sudha Shivpuri got married in 1968 and started their own theatre group, Dishantar, which went on to become one of Delhi pioneering important theatre groups of its era and produced many plays with him as a director, the most important being Aadhe Adhure, a classic Hindi play written by Mohan Rakesh; Khamosh! Adalat Jari Hai, Hindi version of Vijay Tendulkar's Marathi play Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe (Silence! The Court is in Session), with his wife Sudha Shivpuri in the lead role; and their most famous production, Girish Karnad’s historical play Tughlaq, which was performed at ridges of Talkatora Gardens, New Delhi.