Habib Tanvir(1923-2009)

Director of the Naya Theatre Company, which he founded in 1959. Tanvir did not start out planning to become a director. He had been an actor in the Indian People's Theatre Association in Bombay; when the company was arrested for opposing British rule, the IPTA administration sent word from inside the jail that Tanvir should take over and run the group. From Bombay he moved to Delhi, and went to England in 1955 to study at the Old Vic Theatre School, then returned to India to direct. He is also a journalist, dramatist, poet, and actor, and was a Member of Parliament for six years.