Vinod Ranganath

Vinod Ranganath is a renowned theatre and television professional with a background in theatre in Hindi and English since 27 years and in television for over 16 years.

Theatre

He was actively involved in amateur theatre while studying at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai and won Best Actor awards in inter-collegiate competitions (including at Mood Indigo, IIT in 1985). From 1983 onward he worked with Pt. Satyadev Dubey and his Theatre Unit. Did back stage, lights and music for Dubey's productions such as Bali, Aranya, The Village Wooing, Don Juan in Hell, Pratibimbh etc. In 1989, he co-directed Sambhog se Sanyaas Tak with Satyadev Dubey and also conducted theatre workshops with Dubey in 1989 and 1991.

In 1986, joined the theatre group Arpana and was part of the plays, Mat Yaad Dila, Avinaash, Chit Ya Pat and Cyclewallah. Recently acted in Cotton 56 Polyester 84. His ouvre as director with Arpana includes: An adaptation of Harold Pinter's Night out, in Hindi titled, 'Ek raat in 1991; two one-act plays, Tax Free and Appa Ya Bappa in 1993 and a revival of Mat Yaad Dila in 1998.

He has also been actively involved in theatre workshops and plays in Malayalam.

He has co- directed and acted in the English play A Suitable Bride which premiered in 1996 and ran successfully for 50 shows. The film What's Your Raashee? was based on this play.

Television

Vinod has written close to 2500 episodes on television in the last 16 years. Major works include 'daily soap operas' such as Swabhimaan, Sukanya, Kittie Party and Sarkarr, all co-written with Ms. Shobhaa De. and others such as Itihaas, Kartavya, Lekin Yeh Meri Life Hai, Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahi, Agni, Kituu Sab Janti Hai, Kareena-Kareena, Mamta, Aisa Desh Hai Mera, Durgesh Nandini, Main Aisi Kyu Hu, Ghar Ek Sapna, and Dehleez.

Other work on television includes the serials, Parivar, Zara Hat Ke, Sea Hawks, Saaya, Waaris, Milan, Aandhi, Tiger and Force One.

Feature Films

Vinod Ranganath has written the story and screenplay of the Hindi feature film, Mil Gayee Manzil Mujhe, directed by Lekh Tandon, produced by Amit Khanna and Mahesh Bhat for Plus Channel. He also wrote the story, screenplay and dialogue of Mast directed by Ram Gopal Varma, the screenplay of the Malayalam film, Millennium Stars directed by Jayaraj, the screenplay for the Hindi Film Ishq-Vishq for Tips, directed by Ken Ghosh and the screenplay for the film Vibhatsa directed by Jayaraj..

Ashutosh Gowarikar's 'Swades' was based on tVinod's teleplay titled Vapasi, written for Zee's Yule Love stories in 1995.

Ongoing Projects

Has written a film for Popcorn Entertainment to be directed by Vivek Kamath; is writing the story and screenplay for Agnisaakshi to be around October 2010, on Sahara One.

Teaching

Vinod has been conducting a Television Writing workshop for indiantelevsion.com, a web site dealing with various aspects of Indian television; he has trained more than 30 students in TV scriptwriting in the last 6 years.