Vasant Shankar Kanetkar

Who was Vasant Shankar Kanetkar?

Vasant Shankar Kanetkar was a Marathi playwright and novelist from Maharashtra, India.

He was born in the town of Rahimatpur in Satara District, Maharashtra. His father, Shankar Keshav Kanetkar, was a poet who wrote poetry under the pen name Kavi Girish and was a founding member of a circle of poets named Ravikiran Mandal.

Kanetkar spent most of his early life in Pune, and later, Sangli, where his father was a professor at Willingdon College. After acquiring a master's degree in Arts from Willingdon College, Kanetkar joined H.P.T. College in Nashik as a professor.

Kanetkar wrote 40 three-act plays, all of which were performed on the professional stage. Many of his plays became high commercial successes. He has been credited with rejuvenating the Marathi theater when it was in decline, the age of Sangeet Natak—stage musicals—having had come to an end.

Some time in the 1970s, Kanetkar resigned from his post as a professor at H.P.T. College, and devoted his time exclusively to writing plays. He was born in a Karhade Brahmin family.