1880
– 1965
When his mother realized the young
Ganpatrao Bodas’ leaning towards theater; she advised
him to join the best drama Company, i.e. Kirloskar Natak Mandli.
Ganpatrao joined it on 30/9/1895.
Ganpatrao used to study ins and outs of every actor of the
times, from the wings of the stage. He was a keen and observant
student.
The playwright Deval taught him the
role of Shankar from the play ‘Mruchchakatik’,
which became a pet role for him. His roles, Promad in ‘
Mookanayak’, Shrungi in ‘Gupta Manjusha’
and Laximdhar in ‘Manapaman’, were his very famous
roles.
Ganpatrao mastered Deval’s style
of dramatics to the letter. In 1913, there was a split in
Kirloskar Natak Mandli and Ganpatrao, Bal Gandharva and Govind
Tembe started another drama company Gandharva Natak Mandli.
The Company produced Deval’s
play ‘Phalgunrao’ adding music to it and remaining
it ‘Samshay Kallol’. Ganpatrao Bodas’ role
of Phalgunrao in it has simply become immortal on the Marathi
stage.
Bodas reached a pinnacle of glory,
success and popularity in the history of the Marathi theater
through his performances of the roles Krishna in ‘Swayamwar’
and ‘Sudhakar’ in ‘Ekach Pyala’.
In 1919, Bodas left Kirloskar Company
and worked in Yashwant Natak Mandli as Manager. He returned
to Kirloskar once again for a year and then from 1923 Bodas
started working on the night-basis. In those days Bodas used
to get Rs 250/- per night show.
Bodas was back to Kirloskars’s
company for 4 more years from 1928 to 1931. Bodas continued
acting his typical roles of Phalgunrao, Laxmidhar, Kanchanbhat
etc., till 1956.
He was a born actor who was interested
in the theater till his old age. He wrote his autobiography
entitled ‘Mazi Bhoomika’ (My Role) in 1940.
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Milestone
and Achivements |
|
| Year |
Milestone |
| 1895 |
On the occasion of the Dassera festival,
1st part of the play ‘Hamlet’
was performed. |
| 1905 |
Member of the organization passes resolution
to perform play to help society and the Institutions
to built up the Funds. |
| 1913 |
Younger ‘Students Social Club’
get converted to ‘Social Club’ |
| 1919 |
In the due respect of Lokmanya Tilak organization
performed a play ‘Tratica’
(Based on the play by Shakespeare’s
‘Teeming of the through’ ) at
new Aryabhushan Theater in Pune, Lokmanya
Tilak was present on the occasion. |
| 1923 |
On April 19th at Pune, organization performed
a play ‘Kanchangadchi Mohana’
to raise the funds for self reliance. |
| 1924 |
Organization had his own premise of size
24 feet X 18 feet. |
| 1928 |
In the month of may the play ‘Falgunrao’
was performed. A great freedo mfighter on
the nation ‘Netaji Subhashchandra Bose’
was present at this show. |
| 1935 |
Organization had its open air theater which
was inaugurated on 4th May. The collectorate
of Pune, Mr. Mak lacklun was the guest of
the occasion. 27th Bharat Natya Sammelan was
held at new open air theater in presence of
noted harmonium artist Mr. Govindrao Tembe.
Organization was registered on 8th July. |
| 1944 |
27th September, was the golden year of the
organization. A special function was held
under the leadership of noted writer Tatyasaheb
Kelkar. |
| 1950 |
From 15th of August a constitution of organization
starts implementing. |
| 1951 |
From 16th to 20th May, gathering of armature
artists from Pune was held under leadership
of noted marathi stage artist Mr. Keshavrao
Date. |
| 1952 |
On 26th July a students from California
University, U.S.A. visited organization. |
| 1963 |
Organization had its close theater. |
| 1969 |
Organization celebrate its Platinum year
and decide to go for full flanged, well equipped
auditorium. |
| 1970 |
On 9th May, a new well equipped auditorium
was inaugurated. Homeminister Mr. Yashwantrao
Chawhan visited organization on 10th May |
| 1994 |
Organization completed 100 years. The year
was celebrated as Century year. |
| 2003 |
Organization is not out 110. Celebrating
the year with various activities. |
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Achievements
When Marathi theater activity was at high with the
trend of Musical drama (similar to dramatic opera in
the west) from year 1882 to around year 1933, Bharat
Natya Samshodhan Mandir performed mostly prose drama
in the theater acivity. ‘Zunjarrao’,
‘Mohantara’, ‘Kanchangadchi Mohana’,
‘Tratika’, ‘Falgunrao’, ‘Kichakwadh’,
‘godgondhal’, ‘Municipalty’,
‘Umaji Naik’, ‘excap from Agra’
are some noted prose plays performed by the organization.
And now today when Marathi theater is at high with
the trend of prose plays, organization is marinating
the trend of musical drama. The old performed musical
plays are reproduced occasionally by the organization
to maintain the tradition and culture of old Marathi
Theater.
- Organization had its own full-fledged well equipped
auditorium in 1970.
- Organization performed musical play ‘Swayamwar’
in state level musical drama competition by Maharastra
governmentin 1970. First, ‘Mandarmala’
and ‘Vairin Zali Sakhi’ for next consistent
years. Won the first prize for three consistent years
in this competition and made history.
- In prose statelevel competition, organization has
performed prose plays like ‘Takshashila’,
‘shitu’ and prose plays like ‘Umbrella’,
‘Rakshas’, ‘Natawal’, ‘Bhairavi
to Bharatwakya’ of parallel theater activity.
- Organization has started kids drama wing in 1952
with famaus kids play ‘Hema ani ssat butake’,
‘princes laughed’, ‘Nilampari’,
‘Tun tun nagari, khan khan raja’, ‘A
magic rope’ etc. The noted marathi artist Mr.
Mohan Joshi, Rohini Hattangadi, Rajan Mohandikar are
came up from this activity.
- Organization is conducting Single Character Acting
performance competition in the honour of late Mrs.
Vasumati Vijapure for last 25 years. This year is
Silver Jubilee year of the Competition.
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