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His Walchand terrace adopted many of them. In the 70s when Satyadev Dubey roamed around to find a home for his plays,this 4000 sq ft area mothered his creations. The 70s were atime when Vinod Doshi approached many upcoming playwrights not for help but to help. “I remember him approaching Dubey after the play. Backstage,he caught hold of Dubey and offered him help,” reminisces Ashok Kulkarni,theatre activist. Doshi’s Walchand terrace witnessed the growth of some of the masterpieces of the era. At the place what started off as an amateurish attempt blossomed into a masterpiece owing to persistent rehearsals. “The terrace is where many budding playwrights rehearsed. All up and coming playwrights had countless runs and reruns of plays at that place. It was home for us. We developed,nurtured and nourished our plays there,” says Satish Alekar,playwright.

The undying love for theatre that industrialist Vinod Doshi possessed will be resurrected once again. The Vinod Doshi Smruti Natya Mahotsav,constituted to remember the spirit of a theatre enthusiast in the industrialist will stage five timeless creations from the theatre world. Covering an array of plays,from the contemporary to the old school,the mahotsav promises to be a riveting treat for the theatre lovers in the city. The festival wil stage both contemporary plays like Bikhre Bimb and The Park as well as old musicals like Sangeet Sharda.

While Bikhre Bimb deals with the sea of electronic images and the compulsion of taking a plunge in the virtual world of global dimensions,Sangeet Sharda is a revival of a century old musical which has been a favourite with Marathi audiences for years. Other two plays to be staged are Mahanirvan by Satish Alekar and Mee Majhya Shee by Atul Pethe.

“We have tried to cover as much as we can so the mahotsav will have on offer a bit of all the worlds of the theatre cosmos. We have Girish Karnad’s Bikhre Bimb and we also have Satish Alekar’s Mahanirvan. The whole programme has been constituted in the memory of this theatre lover Vinod Doshi,” says Ashish Mehta,programme co-ordinator.

Apart from Pune,the Mahotsav is being held in Mumbai from April 6 to 10. “We are planning to hold this programme not only in Mumbai and Pune but also in other cities. Our next target is Bangalore and once we are done with Mumbai and Pune we will start working on that,” says Mehta.

In Pune,the festival will be held at Yashwantrao Chavhan Natyagruha from April 7 to 11.