page_title: Gopal Sharman
section_title: The Akshara Theatre, New Delhi
hierarchical_section_title: Gopal Sharman / The Akshara Theatre, New Delhi
caption_attribution_description: English: Akshara Theatre outdoor
context_page_description: Gopal Sharman was the author of 14 plays, three books, writer-director of scores of television programmes, many articles and columns, and is best known for his dramatic version of the great epic, The Ramayana, written in English for the Royal Shakespeare Company of Great Britain, which subsequently has been presented on stage more than 2000 times to the highest acclaim in India and the theatre capitals of the West. Gopal Sharman was modern India's maverick artist par excellence! 80 million watched his TV series India Alive. On Broadway, his epic play The Ramayana earned rave reviews. He composed his own music. The Akshara Theatre, situated on Baba Kharak Singh Marg, was constructed by him in the early 1970s. It is a hub of cultural activity in New Delhi and is studied by architecture students. His political satires pack a deadly punch and his poetry reminded President Radhakrishnan of the Upanishads.
context_section_description: Gopal Sharman has also created an exquisite arts complex in an old Lutyen's bungalow in New Delhi called the Akshara National Classical Theatre, built and designed by himself, and embellished by his own stone carvings. This complex houses three theatres, television production studios and a gallery. Here the couple work and live.   
  From the mid-‘80s, Sharman has also made a series of outstanding television programmes and documentaries for television. These include the popular India Alive series, The Kashmir Story, The Sufi Way, Music Alive and My Life is My Song, all telecast nationally. His 11-part series India was telecast on PBS, USA.
  Sharman's Akshara Theatre  combines theatre production, television production, a training programme for the classical arts and a publishing division.
caption: The Akshara Outdoor Pipal Tree Theatre created by Sharman
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