Purushottam Laxman Deshpande

Born: 8 November 1919

Died: 12 June 2000

He popularly was known by his initials (“Pu. La.”) or as P. L. Deshpande, was a Marathi writer and humorist from Maharashtra, India.
He was also an accomplished film and stage actor, scriptwriter, author, composer, musician (he played the harmonium), singer and orator.
He was often referred to as “Maharashtra’s beloved personality”.
Deshpande’s works have been translated into several languages including English and Kannada.
Deshpande studied at Parle Tilak Vidyalaya.
He attended Ismail Yusuf College after high school and then Government law college for LLB.
Later he attended Fergusson College in Pune and obtained his Bachelor’s in Arts, (BA) in 1950 and then obtained his Masters in Arts (MA) from Willingdon College, Sangli.
He also took lessons in playing harmonium from Dattopant Rajopadhye of Bhaskar Sangitalaya.
He was a proficient Hindustani classical musician.
He went on to gain fame as an author, screenplay writer, actor, director, music director, and singer.
He participated in several philanthropist activities.