In what appears to be an acute case of colitis, playwright, director and actor Chetan Datar passed away on Saturday, 2nd August 2008. His death comes as a huge blow to the theatre people who knew him and to Awishkar, a Marathi theatre institution with which Chetan was closely associated. He was in his mid forties.

Plays like SAVLYA, ZULVA, RADHA VAJE RANADE and JUNGLE MEIN MANGAL established Chetan’s reputation as a writer and director who was interested in new ideas and new ways of doing theatre. With productions like Mahesh Elkunchwar’s HARAVLELE PRATIBIMB and GIRIBALA (based on Rabindranath Tagore’s eponymous story), he tried to bring a contemporary approach to the medium of dance-drama.

He was an integral part of Awishkar and an inspiration to younger actors. Of late he had begun working on projects with Rangashankara in Bangalore and Rangakarmee in Kolkata. A few months back he was in Bangalore putting together a production of Mahesh Elkunchwar’s HOLI. His untimely death has left behind a vacuum that perhaps only time can heal.