Widely acknowledged as one of those who have revolutionized modern Tamil drama, Indira Parthasarathy is a creative writer, literary and cultural critic, and historian who started his career as an academic. His best known plays are Aurangzeb, Pasi, Mazhai, Nandan Kathai and Raamaanujar. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi award for the novel Kuruthi-p-punal (1977) which has been translated into all the major Indian languages, including Bengali.