Satish Mehta, though a Masters in Science and a Professor of Physics has always been a theater enthusiast. He has been performing, acting, directing Hindi Theater for over 50 years. He met his wife (to-be) Ms. Jyotsna Mehta during college days. Ms. Mehta was equally committed to theater. Their common connection to theater lead to their marriage in 1971.

In 1976 Prof. Mehta and Ms. Mehta formed a theater group ‘Prayog’. The first play staged by Prayog was ‘Doosara Darwaja’. This theater group has never looked back since then. Over the years, Prayog became one of the most prominent Hindi theater group and expanded as far as USA. It has staged over 1000 performances of 83 full length plays, till date.

New in format and presentation, Prayog’s plays seek to throw a different light on social and political issues. A fresh viewpoint is Satish Mehta’s endeavor, director of all the presentations of Prayog. According to him, our main aim is to address social anomalies and shortcomings. Although Satish Mehta is inspired by the great and revolutionary German theater personality Bertoed Brecht, he has developed his own creative approach in the field of direction. He believes that Brecht derived the idea of symbolism from the east, primarily the countries like India, China and Japan. That is the why Satish Mehta takes various elements from the folk traditions of Indian theater and fuses them with the modern trend of theater to come up with a unique and creative style of his own.

Well-known theater artist Jyotsna Mehta has been an integral part of all performances of Prayog. The remarkable factor in the plays performed by Prayog is variety in form and way of presentation. Folk style plays with dominance of music and dance as in Dulari Bai, Bakri and Jadugar Jungle; hilarious comedies like Saiya Bhaye Kotwal, Langdi Tang, Sharafat teri to and Bad-Bad Saavitri; Political and Social satires like Andhon Ka Hathi, Natak Nahin and Ala Afasar; Social plays like Pratibimb, Mansukh Lal, Hastakshar; Period plays like Jis Lahore nahi dekhya, Ek aur Dronacharya; Mythological plays like Kandhe par baitha tha shap; and Psycho-physical plays like Bhoma.

With its aim of meaningful theater, Prayog has broken new grounds with street plays, like Julus, Samarath ko nahi dosh gusai, Bharat Ke Lal and Kargil Ke Sher, were performed to spread social awareness on various issues. The theme of these plays have been patriotism, non-violence, national integration, communal harmony and other social causes. These street plays attracted a large number of people on streets and conveyed the message easily to them. Satish Mehta has directed these plays with his brilliant and own original style.

Prayog has a remarkable record of presenting its plays in several cities and small towns with a similar response. Prayog has a brigade of talented artistes, who support the cause for which Prayog has been working. Thus Prayog has established a unique name in the field of theater and continues to rise to greater heights.