Sai Paranjpye | |
|---|---|
 Paranjpye in 2011 | |
| Born | (1938-03-19)19 March 1938 (age 87) |
| Occupation(s) | Director,Screenwriter |
| Spouse | Arun Joglekar (divorced) |
| Children | 2 |
| Mother | Shakuntala Paranjpye |
| Relatives | R. P. Paranjpye (grandfather) |
| Awards |
|
Sai Paranjpye (born 19 March 1938) is an Indian movie director and screenwriter. She is the director of the award-winning moviesSparsh,Katha,Chasme Buddoor andDisha. She has written and directed many Marathi plays such as Jaswandi, Sakkhe Shejari, and Albel.
She has won 4National Film Awards and 2Filmfare awards. TheGovernment of India awarded Sai thePadma Bhushan in 2006 in recognition of her artistic talents.[1]
Sai Paranjpye was born on 19 March 1938 in Lucknow toRussian Youra Sleptzoff andShakuntala Paranjpye.[2] Sleptzoff was a Russian watercolor artist and a son of a Russian general. Shakuntala was an actor in Marathi and Hindi films in the 1930s and 1940s, includingV. Shantaram's Hindi social classic,Duniya Na Mane (1937). Later she became a writer and a social worker, was nominated toRajya Sabha, Upper House ofIndian Parliament and was awarded thePadma Bhushan in 2006.[3]
Sai's parents divorced shortly after her birth. Her mother raised Sai in the household of her own father, SirR. P. Paranjpye, who was a renowned mathematician and educationist and who served from 1944 to 1947 as India'sHigh Commissioner inAustralia. Sai thus grew up and received education in many cities in India, includingPune, and for a few years inCanberra, Australia.[4][5] As a child, she used to walk up to the home of her uncle Achyut Ranade, a noted filmmaker of the '40s and '50s, on Fergusson Hill in Pune, who would tell stories as if he were narrating a screenplay.[6] Sai took to writing early in her life: Her first book of fairy tales –Mulānchā Mewā (in Marathi), was published when she was eight.[7][8][9]
Paranjpye graduated from theNational School of Drama (NSD),New Delhi in 1963.[10]
Paranjpye started her career inAll India Radio (AIR) inPune,Maharashtra,India as an announcer and soon got involved with AIR's Children's Program.
Over the years, Paranjpye has written and directed plays inMarathi,Hindi, andEnglish for adults and children. She has written and directed six feature films, two children's films, and five documentaries. She has written many books for children, and six of them have won national or state level awards.
Paranjpye worked for many years as a director or a producer withDoordarshan Television inDelhi. Her first made-for-TV movie –The Little Tea Shop (1972), won the Asian Broadcasting Union Award atTeheran,[11]Iran. Later that year, she was selected to produce the inaugural program ofBombay (Mumbai)Doordarshan.
In the 1970s, Paranjpye twice served as the Chairperson ofChildren's Film Society of India (CFSI), which is a government of India organization with the objective of promoting and ensuring value-based entertainment for children.[12] She made four children's films for CFSI, including the award-winningJādoo Kā Shankh (1974) andSikandar (1976).[13]
Paranjpye's first feature filmSparsh (The Touch), was released in 1980. It won five film awards, including theNational Film Award.Sparsh was followed by the comediesChashme Buddoor (1981) andKathā (1982).Kathā was a musical satire based on the folk tale of thehare and the tortoise.[14]She next made the TV serialsAdos Pados (1984) andChhote Bade (1985). Paranjpye worked as director, writer and narrator for the Marathi dramaMaza khel mandu de. It was played on 27 September 1986 at Gadkari Rangayatan, Thane.[15]
Paranjpye's subsequent movies includeAngoothā Chhāp (1988) about the National Literacy Mission;Disha (1990) about the plight of immigrant workers;Papeeha (Forest Love Bird) (1993);Saaz (1997) (possibly inspired by the lives of Indian playback singing sisters,Lata Mangeshkar andAsha Bhosle);[16] andChakā Chak (2005), which was aimed at creating public awareness about environmental issues.[7]
She also made the serialsHum Panchi Ek Chawl Ke,Partyana andBehnaa.Sridhar Rangayan assisted her in the filmPapeeha and in the serialsHum Panchi Ek Chawl Ke andPartyana.[citation needed]
Paranjpye has also written and staged plays likeMaza Khel Mandu De,Jaswandi andSakhe Shejari.[17]
Paranjpye directed several documentary movies, includingHelping Hand (London),Talking Books,Capt. Laxmi,Warna Orchestra, andPankaj Mullick. Her 1993 documentaryChoodiyan, on the anti-liquor agitation in a small Maharashtra village for the Films Division, received theNational Film Award for Best Film on Social Issues.[11]
In 2001, Paranjpye made the movie for children,Bhago Bhoot. At the first Indian International Women's Film Festival, held inGoa in 2005, a review of her movies was held, and it featured her best movies.[18] She headed the jury in the feature film category of the 55thNational Film Awards for 2007.[19]
In July 2009, Paranjpye's documentary filmSuee was released, emerging from the South Asia Region Development Marketplace (SAR DM), an initiative spearheaded by theWorld Bank.[11]Suee explores a number of areas in the lives ofinjecting drug users including treatment, care, peer and community support, rehabilitation and the workplace, and was produced in partnership with theMumbai-basedNGO Sankalp Rehabilitation Trust. The 29 minute film was aired on Doordarshan onWorld AIDS Day, 1 December 2009.[20][21]
In 2016, she released her autobiography,Saya: Majha Kalapravas, written in Marathi. It was a bestseller that had reached its fifth edition in 2020. She then releasedA Patchwork Quilt – A Collage of My Creative Life, the English version of her autobiography, in 2020, with some chapters rewritten.[17]
Sai was married to theater artist Arun Joglekar; they had a son, Gautam, and a daughter, Winnie. Sai and Arun separated after two years.[22] They remained friends until Arun's death in 1992. After their separation, Arun acted in Sai'sSparsh (1980) andKatha (1983).[23] Their son,Gautam Joglekar is a director of Marathi films (Pak Pak Pakaak, Jai Jai Maharashtra Maaza) and a professional cameraman, and their daughter Winnie Paranjpe Joglekar is an educationist and homemaker. Winnie acted in many of Sai's movies, dramas and TV serials in the 1980s.[24] Winnie and her husband, Abhay, now deceased, have two children; Abeer and Anshunee. Gautam starred as the male lead inNana Patekar's directorial venturePrahaar withMadhuri Dixit playing the female lead.
| Year | Award | Film | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | National Film Awards | Sparsh | Best Screenplay | Won | [25] |
| Best Feature Film in Hindi | Won | ||||
| 1983 | Katha | Won | |||
| 1992 | Choodiyan | Best Film on Social Issues | Won | ||
| 1982 | Filmfare Awards | Chashme Buddoor | Best Director | Nominated | [26] |
| 1985 | Sparsh | Won | |||
| Best Dialogue | Won | ||||
| 1992 | Disha | Best Story | Nominated |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
