Habib Tanvir passes away at Bhopal

     Raipur, June 8, 2009: Eminent theatre personality and activist Habib Tanvir died today at the Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal.

     Habib Ahmed Khan, who adopted the pen-name Tanvir when he began writing poetry at an early age, passed away at the age of 85 after a brief illness.

     Only two days back Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh had decided to bear the medical expenses of Tanvir after he was admitted at the National Hospital about three weeks back.

     Born on September 1, 1923 at Raipur, he began his career as a journalist and subsequently got into theatre and founded his Naya theatre Company in 1959.      Tanvir passed his matriculation from Laurie Municipal High School, Raipur and completed his BA from Morris College Nagpur in 1944. In Aligarh Muslim University he pursued MA for a year after which, Tanvir moved to Bombay to join All India Radio, Bombay as a producer.
     In Bombay, he wrote songs for Hindi films and even acted in a few. And in 1955, he moved to England where he trained in Acting at Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) and in Direction at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (1956). For the next two years, he travelled through Europe, watching various theatre activities and returned to India in 1958 and took directing full-time.
     He produced Mitti Ki Gaadi, based on Shudraka’s Sanskrit work, Mrichhakatika and it became his first important production in Chhattisgarhi.
     He also acted in over nine feature films, including Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi.