Renowned actor-director and theatre artist Gurcharan Singh Channi passed away on Thursday morning due to Covid-19. He was admitted at Forits Hospital in Mohali and had been on the ventilator for a while.
Former president of Chandigarh Sangeet Natak Akademi, Channi had been associated with theatre for the last 40 years.
The National School of Drama alumnus was the director of Centre for Education & Voluntary Action (CEVA). Channi was a Fulbright Scholar at Boston University College of Communication and the recipient of the Sangeet Natak Academi Award for community theatre.
He made several documentaries, short films, performed in theatre. Channi has to his credit several telefilms, including the acclaimed Tuttu, and over two dozen documentaries.
Right from his first play, ‘Dafa 144’, to the well-received ‘Zindagi Retire Nahi Hoti’ to the latest ‘Rocket ho ya Bomb, Pehno Condom’, his has been a theatre of the people, for the people and by the people.
His wife is also infected with Covid and is undergoing treatment.