# Makarand Deshpande (मकरंद देशपांडे)
**Makarand Deshpande** (मकरंद देशपांडे; born 1966) is an Indian actor, playwright, writer, and director who works in Hindi, Marathi, and English theater and in films across eight Indian languages as well as Hollywood[1](https://varietyindia.com/makarand-deshpande-i-am-in-talks-for-another-english-film-after-monkey-man-exclusive/). He is the founder of the Ansh Theatre Group in Mumbai and has written and directed some ninety original plays, while playing character roles in films such as *Sarfarosh*, *Swades*, *Jungle*, *RRR*, and *Monkey Man*[2](https://cultureatlas.in/artist/makarand-deshpande) • [3](https://www.newindianexpress.com/magazine/2022/May/28/play-it-again-makrand-2458317.html).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1966 in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra[1](https://varietyindia.com/makarand-deshpande-i-am-in-talks-for-another-english-film-after-monkey-man-exclusive/) • [4](https://in.bookmyshow.com/person/makarand-deshpande/1063244/filmography) |
| Plays written | Over 40 full-length plays and over 50 short plays; the Culture Atlas profile puts his total output of original plays at around 90[5](https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/makarand-deshpande-s-new-book-chronicles-the-madness-of-the-man-and-his-plays/story-lqjEMrYVLmf741htRsjZbO.html) • [2](https://cultureatlas.in/artist/makarand-deshpande) |
| Theatre company | Ansh Theatre Group, founded in 1993 with Kay Kay Menon; first production the Hindi play *Dream Man*[2](https://cultureatlas.in/artist/makarand-deshpande) • [1](https://varietyindia.com/makarand-deshpande-i-am-in-talks-for-another-english-film-after-monkey-man-exclusive/) |
| Signature play | *Sir Sir Sarla*, written in Hindi in 2001 and still running, his longest-running play; adapted into Gujarati and Marathi[6](https://www.hindustantimes.com/brunch/theatre-special-by-makarand-deshpande-10-reasons-why-drama-is-syrup-for-the-soul/story-kA90pC1TNisZUoRN4ZhZaM.html) • [7](https://www.mid-day.com/mumbai-guide/things-to-do/article/mumbai-prithvi-theatre-catch-this-week-long-festival-performances-by-makarand-deshpande-theatre-group-23583633) |
| Films | Over 170 films in eight languages as of 2026, including Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam; Hollywood debut in *Monkey Man* (2024)[1](https://varietyindia.com/makarand-deshpande-i-am-in-talks-for-another-english-film-after-monkey-man-exclusive/) |
| Recognition | Vishnudas Bhave Puraskar from the Maharashtra Rajya Hindi Sahitya Academy for the book on his play *Sir Sir Sarla*[8](https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/supplement/story/20080428-i-dont-like-a-comfortable-life-736071-2008-04-18) |
| Directed films | Five films, most recently the Marathi *Saturday Sunday* (2014)[9](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/makrand-deshpande-play-ram-prithvi-festival-6101399/) |
## Beginnings at Prithvi
Deshpande grew up in Mumbai, where his mother was a librarian and his father worked night shifts at the general post office; he entered dramatics in college when a Marathi production at Khar Gymkhana needed speakers of good Marathi[10](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a-theatre-called-makarand/articleshow/1915825670.cms). In interviews he says he began doing plays in 1986 at [Prithvi Theatre](https://www.edgepedia.org/prithvi-theatre) in Juhu, where he spent whole days outside the theater; other accounts date the start of his Prithvi career to 1990, with the support of [Sanjana Kapoor](https://www.edgepedia.org/sanjana-kapoor), the venue's then head[11](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/theatre/makarand-deshpande-people-dont-watch-my-plays-for-the-story-they-watch-them-for-my-madness/articleshow/46805414.cms) • [3](https://www.newindianexpress.com/magazine/2022/May/28/play-it-again-makrand-2458317.html). Through the late 1980s he performed original one-act plays and platform performances, acts staged outside the theater itself[5](https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/makarand-deshpande-s-new-book-chronicles-the-madness-of-the-man-and-his-plays/story-lqjEMrYVLmf741htRsjZbO.html).
He credits the playwright Satyadev Dubey as a formative figure; Dubey would tell him, "You exist only because of your madness," and in 2001 Deshpande co-directed the play *Arrest Sudarshan* with him[11](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/theatre/makarand-deshpande-people-dont-watch-my-plays-for-the-story-they-watch-them-for-my-madness/articleshow/46805414.cms) • [5](https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/makarand-deshpande-s-new-book-chronicles-the-madness-of-the-man-and-his-plays/story-lqjEMrYVLmf741htRsjZbO.html).
## Ansh Theatre Group
In 1993 Deshpande founded the Ansh Theatre Group with the actor [Kay Kay Menon](https://www.edgepedia.org/kay-kay-menon), staging the Hindi play *Dream Man* as its first production[2](https://cultureatlas.in/artist/makarand-deshpande) • [1](https://varietyindia.com/makarand-deshpande-i-am-in-talks-for-another-english-film-after-monkey-man-exclusive/). The group describes itself as a radical theater group that broke with convention, and by 2016, when Ansh completed 21 years, Deshpande marked the milestone with a limited-edition book titled *Ansh*[12](https://www.mumbaitheatreguide.com/dramas/Articles/06/jul/13makrand.asp) • [5](https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/makarand-deshpande-s-new-book-chronicles-the-madness-of-the-man-and-his-plays/story-lqjEMrYVLmf741htRsjZbO.html). Ansh runs festivals of its own work, including an Ansh theater festival at Prithvi in 2015 that staged ten of his plays, the annual Ansh Manch Festival, and the week-long Natya Leela at Prithvi in July 2025[11](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/theatre/makarand-deshpande-people-dont-watch-my-plays-for-the-story-they-watch-them-for-my-madness/articleshow/46805414.cms) • [13](https://www.mumbaitheatreguide.com/dramas/reviews/qatl-hindi-play-review.asp) • [14](https://www.mumbaitheatreguide.com/dramas/Articles/25/jul/anshs-natya-leela-at-prithvi-theatre.asp).
## Theatre style
Deshpande positions his work against realism. He has said he refused to put "bedroom, kitchen or bus stop conversations" on stage, arguing that such material belongs to camera; theater, in his view, should explore what is inside the mind, and he places himself in the world of magic realism[11](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/theatre/makarand-deshpande-people-dont-watch-my-plays-for-the-story-they-watch-them-for-my-madness/articleshow/46805414.cms). His productions use physically extreme staging: actors have hung upside down while delivering soliloquies and swung across the stage[5](https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/makarand-deshpande-s-new-book-chronicles-the-madness-of-the-man-and-his-plays/story-lqjEMrYVLmf741htRsjZbO.html).
He says audiences come for this quality rather than for plot. "People don't watch my plays for the story; they watch them for my madness," he told the Times of India in 2015, quoting a line that members of the audience also repeat to him[11](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/theatre/makarand-deshpande-people-dont-watch-my-plays-for-the-story-they-watch-them-for-my-madness/articleshow/46805414.cms) • [15](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bengali/theatre/i-do-films-to-fund-my-plays-makarand-deshpande/articleshow/50533410.cms). When criticism of the abstraction mounted, he wrote *Sir Sir Sarla*, about a professor of literature and his relationship with three students, as a story audiences could follow; it became popular immediately and remains Ansh's perennial favorite[11](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/theatre/makarand-deshpande-people-dont-watch-my-plays-for-the-story-they-watch-them-for-my-madness/articleshow/46805414.cms) • [8](https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/supplement/story/20080428-i-dont-like-a-comfortable-life-736071-2008-04-18). He writes in Hindi and Marathi and has staged plays also in Gujarati, English, and Sanskrit[11](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/theatre/makarand-deshpande-people-dont-watch-my-plays-for-the-story-they-watch-them-for-my-madness/articleshow/46805414.cms) • [1](https://varietyindia.com/makarand-deshpande-i-am-in-talks-for-another-english-film-after-monkey-man-exclusive/).
**Subject matter and economics.** His later plays have moved closer to reality while keeping fantasy as an element; mythological material recurs, from *Airavat*, on Ganesha's birth, to *Ram*, his 2019 play about a vagabond who claims that Ram came out of a temple to visit him[5](https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/makarand-deshpande-s-new-book-chronicles-the-madness-of-the-man-and-his-plays/story-lqjEMrYVLmf741htRsjZbO.html) • [9](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/makrand-deshpande-play-ram-prithvi-festival-6101399/). *Balatkar — Please Stop It!* (2022) took rape as its subject; Deshpande argued that theater, where audience and performer become one, is the medium able to handle it[16](https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/art-and-culture/makarand-deshpande-theatre-medium-actor-7929489/). The 2017 play *Patni*, created with sitarist and composer Niladri Kumar, has been a long-running success[3](https://www.newindianexpress.com/magazine/2022/May/28/play-it-again-makrand-2458317.html).
He has been open about the economics. Films fund his plays: he asks for small, almost cameo-like screen roles because they leave time for theater[15](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bengali/theatre/i-do-films-to-fund-my-plays-makarand-deshpande/articleshow/50533410.cms) • [1](https://varietyindia.com/makarand-deshpande-i-am-in-talks-for-another-english-film-after-monkey-man-exclusive/). In 2023 he told the Times of India that rising rents had made it impossible to make a living entirely on theater, while commercial, sponsored theater affects creativity "hundred percent of the time"[17](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/theatre/exclusive-makarand-deshpande-to-make-a-living-entirely-on-theatre-is-not-possible-anymore/articleshow/97231092.cms).
## Films
Deshpande's screen career spans more than 170 films in eight languages, with character and cameo roles chosen to fit around theater[1](https://varietyindia.com/makarand-deshpande-i-am-in-talks-for-another-english-film-after-monkey-man-exclusive/). Early notable Hindi films include Sayeed Mirza's *Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro*, *Satya*, *Jungle*, *Snip*, and [Mahesh Bhatt](https://www.edgepedia.org/mahesh-bhatt)'s *Sir*; later credits include *Sarfarosh* (1999), *[Makdee](https://www.edgepedia.org/makdee)* (2002), *Swades* (2004), *RRR* (2022), and *Bholaa* (2023)[10](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a-theatre-called-makarand/articleshow/1915825670.cms) • [3](https://www.newindianexpress.com/magazine/2022/May/28/play-it-again-makrand-2458317.html). His voice work in the gangster film *Company* changed his career, he has said on the Cyrus Says podcast, where he also discussed his Hollywood debut in [Dev Patel](https://www.edgepedia.org/dev-patel)'s *Monkey Man* (2024)[18](https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/makarand-deshpande-on-working-with-shah-rukh-khan-nana/id979118845?i=1000718205348). In *Monkey Man* he played Baba Shakti, the religious leader at the head of the syndicate the protagonist infiltrates[19](https://apnews.com/article/47d28b09ee9b123ec9efc138a446a927).
As a director he has made five films, most recently the Marathi *Saturday Sunday* (2014), and has directed one short film, *Candyfloss/Buddhi Ka Baal*[9](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/makrand-deshpande-play-ram-prithvi-festival-6101399/) • [10](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a-theatre-called-makarand/articleshow/1915825670.cms).
## Recognition
A book on *Sir Sir Sarla* won Deshpande the Vishnudas Bhave Puraskar from the Maharashtra Rajya Hindi Sahitya Academy[8](https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/supplement/story/20080428-i-dont-like-a-comfortable-life-736071-2008-04-18). By 2018 he had directed his 50th play[9](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/makrand-deshpande-play-ram-prithvi-festival-6101399/). The Culture Atlas profile describes him as among the most prolific living Indian playwright-directors, sustaining a playwright-led theater in Mumbai for over three decades[2](https://cultureatlas.in/artist/makarand-deshpande).
## References
1. [Makarand Deshpande: 'I Am In Talks For Another English Film After Monkey Man' (EXCLUSIVE), Variety India](https://varietyindia.com/makarand-deshpande-i-am-in-talks-for-another-english-film-after-monkey-man-exclusive/)
2. [Makarand Deshpande: Playwright & Theatre Director, Culture Atlas](https://cultureatlas.in/artist/makarand-deshpande)
3. [Play it Again, Makrand, The New Indian Express](https://www.newindianexpress.com/magazine/2022/May/28/play-it-again-makrand-2458317.html)
4. [Makarand Deshpande – Movies, Biography, BookMyShow](https://in.bookmyshow.com/person/makarand-deshpande/1063244/filmography)
5. [Makarand Deshpande's new book chronicles the madness of the man and his plays, Hindustan Times](https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/makarand-deshpande-s-new-book-chronicles-the-madness-of-the-man-and-his-plays/story-lqjEMrYVLmf741htRsjZbO.html)
6. [Theatre Special by Makarand Deshpande: 10 reasons why drama is syrup for the soul, Hindustan Times](https://www.hindustantimes.com/brunch/theatre-special-by-makarand-deshpande-10-reasons-why-drama-is-syrup-for-the-soul/story-kA90pC1TNisZUoRN4ZhZaM.html)
7. [Catch this week-long festival at Prithvi Theatre featuring performances by Makarand Deshpande's theatre group, Mid-Day](https://www.mid-day.com/mumbai-guide/things-to-do/article/mumbai-prithvi-theatre-catch-this-week-long-festival-performances-by-makarand-deshpande-theatre-group-23583633)
8. ['I don't like a comfortable life', India Today (Simply Mumbai)](https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/supplement/story/20080428-i-dont-like-a-comfortable-life-736071-2008-04-18)
9. [Script called life, The Indian Express](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/makrand-deshpande-play-ram-prithvi-festival-6101399/)
10. [A theatre called Makarand, Times of India](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a-theatre-called-makarand/articleshow/1915825670.cms)
11. [Makarand Deshpande: People don't watch my plays for the story; they watch them for my madness, Times of India](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/theatre/makarand-deshpande-people-dont-watch-my-plays-for-the-story-they-watch-them-for-my-madness/articleshow/46805414.cms)
12. [Makrand Deshpande's 'Ansh' Celebrates its Theatre Fest at Prithvi this week, Mumbai Theatre Guide](https://www.mumbaitheatreguide.com/dramas/Articles/06/jul/13makrand.asp)
13. [QATL Play Review, Mumbai Theatre Guide](https://www.mumbaitheatreguide.com/dramas/reviews/qatl-hindi-play-review.asp)
14. [Ansh's Natya Leela at Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai Theatre Guide](https://www.mumbaitheatreguide.com/dramas/Articles/25/jul/anshs-natya-leela-at-prithvi-theatre.asp)
15. [I do films to fund my plays: Makarand Deshpande, Times of India](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bengali/theatre/i-do-films-to-fund-my-plays-makarand-deshpande/articleshow/50533410.cms)
16. ['Theatre is the most alive and impactful medium': Makarand Deshpande, The Indian Express](https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/art-and-culture/makarand-deshpande-theatre-medium-actor-7929489/)
17. [Exclusive: Makarand Deshpande: To make a living entirely on theatre is not possible anymore, Times of India](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/theatre/exclusive-makarand-deshpande-to-make-a-living-entirely-on-theatre-is-not-possible-anymore/articleshow/97231092.cms)
18. [Makarand Deshpande on working with Shah Rukh Khan, Nana Patekar, Dev Patel, Cyrus Says podcast, Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/makarand-deshpande-on-working-with-shah-rukh-khan-nana/id979118845?i=1000718205348)
19. [Movie Review: Dev Patel's 'Monkey Man' is a political allegory bathed in blood, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/47d28b09ee9b123ec9efc138a446a927)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Theater and dance › Playwrights and dramatists › Asian and African playwrights › Indian playwrights*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 12, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license