Pran Sabharwal
A Patiala actor and theatre organiser who has led the National Theatre Arts Society since 1953, honoured with the Padma Shri in 2024.
Pran Sabharwal is an actor, director and organiser who has worked in Punjabi theatre for more than seventy years. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2024 in the field of art, from Punjab [1].
Seven decades on stage
He was born on 9 December 1930 and graduated from the University of the Punjab in 1953, the year his theatre group, the National Theatre Arts Society, began [2]. An A-grade radio and Doordarshan drama artist since 1952, he has acted in some 500 radio plays as well as television films and serials and three National Award-winning Punjabi films [2]. He has given about five thousand stage performances as an actor and one-man comic performer, and has trained more than 2,500 young people in theatre [2].
Teacher and festival-maker
In 1967 he set up a speech, drama and music department at the university in Patiala, which later became its theatre and television department [2]. After moving to Patiala in 1962 he held two-day theatre festivals every Independence Day and Republic Day until 1988, fifty festivals in all [2]. His monthly “Garden Theatre” series ran for 22 years and 258 shows [2].
With his wife, the actor Sunita Sabharwal, he has taken Punjabi theatre on tour to countries including Canada, the USA, the UK, Hungary, Poland and Norway [2]. He also made a television documentary on the history of Punjabi theatre [2].
He received the Punjab government’s Shiromani Natakkar award in 2015 [2].
Sources
- [1] Padma Awards 2024: list of awardees — Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Accessed 15 October 2026.
- [2] Padma Awards 2024: citation for Pran Sabharwal — Padma Awards, Government of India. Accessed 15 October 2026.
Last updated . First draft prepared with AI assistance; reviewed and fact-checked by a person before publishing. Report a correction
