Mahesh Dattani is much more than one of India's best-known playwrights. He's a director, actor, dancer, teacher and writer, all rolled into one. A winner of the Sahitya Akademi award, Dattani has a theatre studio in Bangalore where he conducts workshops on acting, playwriting and directing. He has been described as "one of India's best and most serious contemporary playwrights writing in English" by Alexandra Viets in the International Herald Tribune.