Parshuram Komaji Khune

Parshuram Komaji Khune is an actor of Zadipatti rangabhumi, the folk theatre of eastern Vidarbha, who has worked for half a century in tribal and Naxal-affected areas. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2023 in the field of art, from Maharashtra ^[1].

A village in the forest

Khune was born on 22 February 1952 in Gurnoli, a small village in a heavily forested tribal area of Maharashtra ^[2]. He went to the Zilla Parishad school in Gurnoli and studied further at Nawargaon in Chandrapur district ^[2].

Fifty years on stage

Over 50 years he has acted in some 800 folk plays and performances of Zadipatti theatre, playing around 5,000 roles ^[2]. He is popularly called the “Dada Kondke of Vidarbha”, after the Marathi comic actor ^[2]. Through his plays he has worked to free tribal and poor communities from superstition and harmful customs, and many young people have taken inspiration from him ^[2]. He has also helped elderly artists get their pensions ^[2].

For ten years he served as an active sarpanch of Gurnoli gram panchayat ^[2].

Honours

In 1991 the Maharashtra government gave him its Shetinishta Puraskar for agricultural innovations ^[2]. He received the Smita Patil Smruti Puraskar in 1996 and the state’s Kala Dan Puraskar in 2012 for his work in theatre ^[2].