TalkBack with Poile Sengupta
Poile Sengupta is one of the foremost Indian writers in English. She is a novelist, poet, playwright and short fiction writer, for both children and adults.
As a playwright, her first full-length play, Mangalam, won the award for the most socially relevant theme in The Hindu-Madras Players Playscripts Competition in 1993. After that she wrote a series of plays for both adults and children including Inner Laws, A Pretty Business, Keats Was A Tuber, Collages, Alipha, Thus Spake Shoorpanakha, So Said Shakuni and Yavamajakka – a musical for children. In 2008, Samara's Song was shortlisted for the Hindu Metro Plus Playwright award. In 1999-2001, she received a senior fellowship of the Government of India to write plays for children in English. A collection of these plays for children, Good Heavens! was published in 2006.
Poile has been an accomplished actor on stage and in film. Her film credits are - The Outhouse directed by Leslie Carvalho and Shaitaan directed by Bejoy Nambiar. She is the founder of Theatre Club, a Bangalore-based amateur theatre group. Poile has been a member of the Governing Council of National School of Drama, New Delhi. She has thrice been on the jury of Trinity College, London’s international competition of plays for young people.
Sengupta’s first novel for adults, Inga, was published by Tranquebar in October 2014.