Vijay Dhondopant Tendulkar was born on 6 January 1928 in Girgaon, Mumbai, Maharashtra, where his father held a clerical job and ran a small publishing business. The literary environment at home prompted young Vijay to take up writing. He wrote his first story at age six. He grew up watching western plays and felt inspired to write plays himself.

Tendulkar began his career writing for newspapers. He had already written a play, Amcyavar Kon Prem Karnar (aamcyaavrr konn prem krnnaar Who will Love us?), and he wrote the play, Grhastha (The Householder), in his early 20s. The latter did not receive much recognition from the audience, and he vowed never to write again.  Breaking the vow, in 1956 he wrote Srimant, which established him as a good writer. Srimant jolted the conservative audience of the times with its radical storyline, wherein an unmarried young woman decides to keep her unborn child while her rich father tries to "buy" her a husband in an attempt to save his social prestige.  Tendulkar's early struggle for survival and living for some time in tenements ("cal/chawls") in Mumbai provided him first-hand experience about the life of urban lower middle class. He thus brought new authenticity to their depiction in Marathi theatre. Tendulkar's writings rapidly changed the storyline of modern Marathi theatre in the 1950s and the 60s, with experimental presentations by theatre groups like Rangayan. Actors in these theatre groups like Shriram Lagoo, Mohan Agashe, and Sulabha Deshpande brought new authenticity and power to Tendulkar's stories while introducing new sensibilities in Marathi theatre.  Tendulkar wrote the play Gidhade (The Vultures) in 1961, but it was not produced until 1970. The play was set in a morally collapsed family structure and explored the theme of violence. In his following creations, Tendulkar explored violence in its various forms: domestic, sexual, communal, and political. Thus, Gidhade proved to be a turning point in Tendulkar's writings with regard to establishment of his own unique writing style.  Based on a 1956 short story, Die Panne ("Traps") by Friedrich Durrenmatt, Tendulkar wrote the play, Santata! Court Calu Ahe ("Silence! The Court Is in Session"). It was presented on the stage for the first time in 1967 and proved as one of his finest works. Satyadev Dubey presented it in movie form in 1971 with Tendulkar's collaboration as the screenplay writer.

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