ARUNDHATI SHANKAR NAG
Akademi Award: Acting

in 1956 in Delhi, Arundhati Shankar Nag was initiated in theatre while still in her teens as a member of the Bombay branch of the Indian People’s Theatre Association. There she had the benefit of training and guidance under eminent artists associated with IPTA, including M.S. Sathyu, A.K. Hangal, Kaifi Azmi and Balraj Sahani. She then made a start as an actress in Marathi and Gujarati theatre in Bombay, and marrying Shankar Nag moved to Bangalore and the Kannada theatre.

Arundhati Nag has presented over a thousand performances on stage, and in several languages. Some of the major plays where she has played lead roles as an actress are Khalid ki Khala, an IPTA production directed by M.S. Sathyu, Shatranj ke Mohare directed by Ramesh Talwar, Neela Kamra directed by Shafi Inamdar, Bikhare Bimb by Girish Karnad, and Road to Mecca directed by Prasanna. Outside of acting assignments, she has written dialogue for the television serial Malgudi Days, designed costumes for Kannada films directed by Shankar Nag, and assisted director David Lean on the film Passage to India. Over the past four years her energies have been devoted to building up Ranga Shankara, an institution in Bangalore founded by her to nurture the art of theatre. More than seventeen hundred performances in twenty-four languages have been held at this institution in Bangalore.

Shrimati Arundhati Nag is a recipient of the Karnataka Nataka Academy Award (2006). She was conferred the Rajyotsava Award by the Government of Karnataka in 2007. She has also received several awards as an actress in the cinema.

Shrimati Arundhati Shankar Nag receives the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for her contribution to Indian theatre as an actress.