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Sudhanva Deshpande (born December 1967) is an Indian theatre and film actor, stage director, writer, editor, publisher and a cyclist. He is the author of Halla Bol: The Death and Life of Safdar Hashmi, and a member of Jana Natya Manch, a radical left-wing theatre group in Delhi co-founded by Safdar Hashmi. Deshpande's film credits include supporting roles in The Sky is Pink, Pink, Madras Cafe and Jolly LLB 2. He is a member of Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the managing editor of LeftWord Books.Deshpande speaks English, Hindustani, Hindi and Marathi languages and performs in Hindustani, Hindi and English.

Family
Deshpande was born in New Delhi. His parents were playwright and academic Govind Purushottam Deshpande and activist Kalindi Deshpande, a member of AIDWA. He and his sister, the economist Ashwini Deshpande, grew up on Jawaharlal Nehru University campus, where their father taught at the Centre for East Asian Studies.

He is the nephew of actress Jyoti Subhash, and a cousin of actress Amruta Subhash. The archaeologist M.N. Deshpande is his grand uncle.

Education
After graduating high school from New Delhi's Sardar Patel Vidyalaya in 1985, Deshpande completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in History from Ramjas College, University of Delhi. In 1990, he earned a Master of Arts in Modern Indian History from University of Delhi.

Early career
Deshpande joined Jana Natya Manch in 1987 and started performing in plays. In 1990-92 he worked at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad on the Discovery of India permanent exposition housed at Nehru Centre in Mumbai. In 1992-93 he was on the faculty at the National Institute of Design, where he was coordinator of the Science and Liberal Arts Programme. In 1993-94, he worked as an editor at Orient Longman and from 1993-94 he was an editor at Tulika Books, New Delhi. From 1995 to 2004, he was visiting faculty, teaching street theatre, at AJK Mass Communication Research Centre in Jamia Millia Islamia.

Jana Natya Manch
When he joined Jana Natya Manch (or Janam), in 1987, Deshpande was initiated into political theatre by Safdar Hashmi, the convenor of Janam, who is regarded as one of the most able theoretician-practitioners of street theatre. Hashmi was killed when the group was performing a play in support of workers’ rights near Delhi in 1989. After his death, Deshpande remained an integral part of the group, as an actor as well as writer and director. He has been involved in the creation of over 50 street plays and has performed with Jana Natya Manch extensively across India. To date, he has acted in more than 4,000 performances of 80 plays.

Workshops and training
He also conducts theatre workshops for activists and students. Have conducted numerous workshops and training sessions for street theatre groups, colleges and schools. Have lectured and spoken extensively on street theatre in India, Germany and the US. Toured 16 cities in the United States of America with Janam in 2007, performing, lecturing and workshopping with students and faculty in over 20 colleges and universities, including Columbia University, NY; University of California, Berkeley; University of Southern California, LA; Trinity College, Hartford, CT; etc.


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Writings on theatre. written on street theatre in several scholarly journals, newsmagazines, and newspapers.