In 1959, Tanvir and wife Moneeka Misra founded Naya Theatre in Bhopal, which focused on plays based on ancient and modern classics. As time passed, Tanvir worked on improvisations in folk theatre, with a growing realisation that constraining rural artistes by asking them to refine their language to a chaste form of Hindi was a “fault”.

In 1975, Tanvir’s improvisations of form and style reached its apogee in his masterpiece Charandas Chor, which won him the Fringe Firsts Award at the Edinburgh International Drama Festival in 1982. He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1969, Padma Shri in 1983, Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 1996 and the Padma Bhushan in 2002. He also served as a member of the Rajya Sabha from 1972-78.

One of Tanvir’s works, Ponga Pandit, got him into trouble with Hindu activists post-Babri who accused it of denigrating Hinduism.

“His death is the passing of an era,” said famous theatre personality Alakhnandan. “He truly established People’s Culture in theatre. He fought the onslaught of media and technology through his art.”

Anup Joshi, who worked with Tanvir as an actor and designed lighting of his last play Raj Rakt, said he preferred simplicity of form, though his plays were always meaningful. “Despite his stature he had no ego,” said Joshi.

For poet and writer Manzoor Ehtesham, Tanvir was simply “one of those people who mattered”.