Balwant Thakur

Balwant Thakur is an Indian theatre personality and scholar, known for bringing Dogri theatre to international notice. He was honoured by the Government of India, in 2013, by bestowing on him the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for his contributions to the field of theatre.

Biography Balwant Thakur was born on 25 December 1960 in small mountain village Bakkal Reasi district of the north Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, to Hari Saran Thakur, a locally known traditional art performer. He graduated in business management and economics from the Government M. A. M. college, University of Jammu and followed it with a graduation in law. He also started a weekend show called Sunday Show, in 2004, which has been staging shows every week unabated through the regional turmoil, reaching 500 weekly theatre shows, considered to be a record of sorts. He has also won the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages award three times, in 1983, 1984 and 1985. His other awards and recognitions are: Ford Foundation Research grant National Sanskriti Award - 1992 All India Citizen Award for culture - 1994 Gurushree - 1995 Abhinayak Samman - 1996 Saptrishi Samman - 2001 Kala Nidhi Puraskar - 2004 Best Director Award - Doordarshan Theatre festival - 2005 Dogra Rattan - 2006 Punjab Arts Council Honour - 2007 Dogri Sanstha Award - 2010 Maharaja Gulab Singh Memorial Award - 2011 Rabindra Nath Tagore Award - 2011 Gursharan Singh Theatre Commitment Award (World Theatre Day Honour) - 2013

Sangeet Natak Akademi honoured Thakur by hosting a retrospective of five of his plays, under the theme, Theatre Days with Balwant Thakur at Tagore Theatre in Chandigarh, in 2006. Four theatre festivals, in Russia, Germany, Hungary and Poland, staged his play, Ghumayee, in 2009.