Prolific Marathi playwright, director, activist and social commentator Vijay Tendulkar passed away on Monday.

Tendulkar passed away at the ripe old age of 80 in Pune. He had been admitted to the hospital for receiving treatment for a muscular disorder, myasthenia gravis since last few weeks.

He shot to fame for his path breaking plays, and emerged as a prolific writer, actor, director and dramatist who examined burning social issues and deep rooted problems of society.

Born on Jan 6, 1928 in a Brahmin family in Kolhapur, Tedulkar grew up in a literary atmosphere. He started his career with short stories, newspaper columns and scriptwriter for plays. His first full-fledged play Grihast (the householder) was not received well and took a long break from writing.

He returned with a vengeance and he went on to write over 30 full-length plays, several one-act plays, collection of short stories and film scripts; many of which brought him awards.

He is best known for his plays, Ghasiram Kotwal and Sakharam Binder. For Ghasiram Kotwal in which he caricatured legendary Maratha leader Nana Phadnavis, he invited the ire of orthodox Maratha groups like Shiv Sena.

Ghasiram Kotwal (Ghasiram the Constable) is billed as one of the longest-running plays in the world with over 6,000 performances in India and abroad in the original and in translation.

Vijay Tendulkar was awarded with many honours including, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1970), Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya Award (1970), Padma Bhushan in 1984, Saraswati Sanman (1993 ), Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship (1998) Maharashtra Gauruw Puraskar in 1999, and Kalidas Samman (1999).

Apart from these, in 1977, Tendulkar won the National Film Award for Best Screenplay of Shyam Benegal’s movie Manthan, the Filmfare Best Screenplay Award and Filmfare Best Story Award for the film Aakrosh released in 1981 and Filmfare Best Screenplay Award for Ardha Satya in 1983.

However Vijay Tendulkar’s last days were tragic as he lost his wife, son and only daughter, noted actress Priya Tendulkar in recent times.