ATAMJIT
Akademi Award: Playwriting (Punjabi)

Born in 1950 in Amritsar, Shri Atamjit is a noted Punjabi playwright and director. He attracted wide attention with his first full-length play Kabrastaan, published in 1975. Deeply concerned with social issues, he has over the years produced a substantial body of work including Kamloops Deean Machhiaan, Rishtian da ki Rakhiye Na, Main tan Ik Sarangi Han, Panch Nad da Pani, Tatti Tawi Da Sach, Scooty and Ghadar Express. His plays have been widely performed, published, and translated into several languages. Many of them are prescribed reading in schools and colleges in Punjab, Haryana, and Jammu and Kashmir. Universities abroad, including the University of California in the United States, have also placed his work on their curriculam.

Plays directed by Shri Atamjit have been staged widely in Canada and the US. He has also given public readings of his plays before select audiences, such as Kamloops Deean Machhiaan which he read at the Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai. He has successfully written songs for various theatre productions, and has produced both documentaries and fiction films for Doordarshan. His plays have been broadcast by All India Radio and have been telecast by Doordarshan from Jalandhar.

Shri Atamjit holds a PhD from Guru Nanak Dev University (1983), and is a former Secretary of the Punjab Sangeet Natak Akademi (1991-1994). He was honoured with the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2009, and was declared Playwright of the Decade (1982-92) by the Punjabi Academy, Delhi. He has received awards as Playwright of the Year from several institutions including Guru Nanak Dev University, Punjabi Sahitya Academy, and Sahitya Kala Parishad, Delhi.

Shri Atamjit receives the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for his contribution to Indian theatre as a playwright.