Shakespeare on Indian Stage

It is unanimously acknowledged that the entire world has become Shakespeare’s stage as his plays are performed all over the world on several occasions. Shakespeare is called a great borrower who took material from different sources and served old wine with new flavor and taste. Now that borrower has become a great lender to the world as his plays can be well appropriated in any language and on any stage. Even after more than 450 years of Shakespeare’s demise, his plays have not lost their recreational value. It is well recognized that Shakespeare has become a brand for the world of performance and entertainment. His plays continue to have the same appeal to the audience in present time as they had on the Elizabethan stage. Shakespeare’s plays were performed on the Indian stage with the arrival of Britishers but very soon he made his permanent abode in the heart of Indians as his plays are successfully performed on different regional stages after many years of the Britishers departure. As India is a vast country with different regional languages and cultures so it is hard to assess all the regional performances of Shakespeare in India. It will need a joint effort of many scholars to provide a full record of all these performances. In my research paper I have tried to present a record of Shakespeare’s performances on three significant stages-   Bengali, Parsi and Madras.