Vyankatesh Madgulkar

Vyankatesh Madgulkar Biography

Vyankatesh Madgulkar was a popular Marathi poet, called by the name Tatya (old man) by the admirers. The popular poet, G. D. Madgulkar was his brother. He received Sahitya Akademi Award for his novel Sattantar in 1983. He presided over Marathi Sahitya Sammelan at Ambajogai the same year. He contributed 8 novellas, over 200 short stories and 40 screenplays to Marathi literature and cinema. He has also published a few travelogues, folk plays and essays on nature. He published his first book at the age of 22.

He was born in the village of Madgul in Sangli District of Maharashtra in the year 1927. His father was a government servant of the Aundh princely state. While at teens, he left home and joined Indian nationalist movement of freedom struggle and the British government banned him as a criminal for two years for his activities. He returned home only after Indian independence. He was not able to complete his high school education. Yet he was keen in reading books, which sharpened his interest in writing. He published his first book, Mandeshi Manse in 1949. He was only 22 then. His first novella Bangarwadi was published in the year 1954, which has been later translated to many languages including English. Noted filmmaker Amol Palekar made a movie, based on this work titled –Bangarwad. Wawtal is another popular novel of Madgulkar.

He was also interested in the artistic ways of sketching and painting. He has taken painting lesons from Kolhapur during his teens. But when he won a short story competition at 19, he completely switched on to literary career. At the age of 21, he became a journalist and moved to Mumbai to become a screenwriter. He has also worked in rural programming department of All India Radio, Pune during middle 1950’s.

Published: N/A

Updated: February 27, 2014