Indian theatre has lost one of its most influential figures with the passing of celebrated actor, director and theatre visionary Vijaya Mehta, who died in Mumbai on June 30 at the age of 91. According to her family, she had been battling a prolonged illness. She is survived by her daughter, actor-director Anahita Uberoi, and her two sons.
Born as Vijaya Jaywant, her remarkable journey in theatre began while she was still a student at Wilson College in Mumbai. During a 1953 college production of William Shakespeare’s Othello, she portrayed Desdemona, a performance that caught the attention of legendary theatre director Ebrahim Alkazi, who was in the audience.
Deeply impressed by her talent, Alkazi invited the young actor to join his renowned Theatre Group, one of Mumbai’s leading theatre ensembles of the time. Under the mentorship of Alkazi and Parsi theatre stalwart Adi Pherozeshah Marzban, Vijaya refined her craft and embarked on a career that would reshape Marathi theatre for generations.
Theatre also introduced her to Farrokh Mehta, one of the key figures behind Mumbai’s English theatre movement, whom she later married. Following their marriage, she became widely known as Vijaya Mehta.
Known for her discipline and artistic precision, Mehta went on to hold several prestigious leadership positions. She served as Chairperson of the National School of Drama (NSD) in New Delhi, headed the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune, and spent nearly fifteen years as Executive Director of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA).
Her professional Marathi theatre career began in 1955 when she stepped into the lead role in Junjarrao. However, it was during the 1960s that she made her most significant contribution by co-founding Rangayan, an experimental theatre collective established alongside playwright Vijay Tendulkar and actor-director Arvind Deshpande.
Rangayan became a turning point for Marathi theatre, encouraging fresh …read more
Disclaimer : This story is auto-aggregated by a computer program and has not been created or edited by FilmyFriday. Source:: BollywoodHungama
