Sasidharan Naduvil

Sasidharan Naduvil is an Indian theatre director and rural theatre activist from Kerala. He received many awards, including the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Awards for the best director and best playwright, Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi's Gurupooja Award and the 2024 Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Drama.

Biography Sasidharan Naduvil was born in 1963 in Vallachira in Thrissur district of Kerala. He wrote and directed a play at the age of 15 while studying at Cherpp CNN School.

Theatre career and contributions Sasidharan started his theatrical activism from the Vallachira Grama Nataka Vedi, a village drama society in his home village.

He has presented plays at the South Zone National Festivals for various Indian universities 11 times. In addition, agricultural drama festivals and drama training sessions are regularly organized at Jose Chiramel Nataka Dweep in Vallachira under the leadership of Sasidharan Naduvil.

Notable adaptations The play Higuita is a drama adaptation of N. S. Madhavan's story with same title. The one and a half hour long play 'Red Cross', written and directed by him is a synthesis of 3 Malayalam short stories.

His other Malayalam adaptations include The Balcony by the French dramatist Jean Genet, The Old Man and the Sea by the American author Ernest Hemingway, and The Dumb Dancer (1961) by indian playwright Asif Currimbhoy.

Awards and honours Sasidharan received the 2024 Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Drama for the play Pithala Shalabham. He has received many other awards including the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Awards for the best director and best playwright, Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi's Gurupooja Award for overall contribution, the Manneeyam Nataka Jyothis Award, Gramika's Prathama Mohan Raghavan Award, Rangamudra's Sathyan Smaraka Award, Canberra Oaker Theatre Award, Sydney Art Collective Award, Badal Media Award, Thrissur Rangachetana Award, Bharat Bhavan Award, Ireland I Mandala-Malayalam Adaravu and many others. He was also awarded the best director 21 times in drama competitions at Calicut University.

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