Ebrahim Alkazi, one of the most influential Indian Theatre Directors and Drama Teachers of 20th century Indian Theatre was born on October, 18, 1925 to a Saudi Arabian businessman trading in India at that time. He did his schooling from St. Vincet’s High School in Pune and went to St. Xaviers College, Mumbai for his further studies. Thereafter, he was trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London.
In early stage of his career, he got allied with the Bombay Progressive Artists Gruop which included some famous artists like M.F.Husain, S.H. Raza, Akbar Padamsee and Tyeb Mehta who later painted from his plays and designed his sets.
being the director of the National School of Drama (NSD) from (1962-1977), he revolutionized Hindi Theatre by the glory of his vision and the perfection of his technical discipline, here he trained many well known film and theatre actors and directors including Vijay Mehta, Om Shivpuri, Om Puri, Nasseeruddin Shah, Manohar Singh, Uttara Baokar, Jyoti Subhash, Suhas Joshi, B.Jayashree, Jayadev, Rohini Hattangadi.
He also founded Art Heritage Gallery in Delhi with his wife, Roshan Alkazi.
During his magnificent career Ebrahim Alkazi was awarded by many auspicious awards which include :-
- Roopwedh Pratishtan’s the Tanvir Award (2004) for life time contribution to the theatre. He was the 1st recipient of this award.
- Padma Shri (1966).
- Padma Bhushan (1991).
- Padma Vibhushan (2010).
- He was also awarded twice by the Sangeet Natak Akademi (India’s national academy for music, dance and drama) for direction and for his life time contribution to theatre.
Now, his legacy has been taken forward by his two children , Amal Allana ( a theatre director and present chairman of National School of Drama) and Fiesal Alkazi ( Delhi based theatre director).
