Vitthal Kale

Kale was born in Pangaon village in Barshi taluka of Solapur district, Maharashtra.^[4] He completed his schooling at Sant Tukaram Vidyalaya and his college education at Shri Shivaji Vidyalaya. During his college years, he developed an interest in acting and actively participated in youth festivals. After completing his bachelor's degree in English, he pursued a Master’s degree in English Literature from Pune.^[5]

As he was unable to secure admission to the filmmaking course at Pune University, Kale frequently visited the campus with friends and gained practical exposure to acting and production. He later auditioned for a short film that was shown to veteran director Chandrakant Kulkarni, who cast him in his first significant role as Laxman Lohar in the Marathi film Tukaram, which became a turning point in his career.^[5]

After that, Kale performed with actor Shashank Shende in the theatre group Samanvay and participated in theatre festivals such as the Purushottam Karandak and the Thespo at the Prithvi Theatre. Since then, he has acted in many feature films like Hotel Mumbai, The Field, Punashcha Hari Om, Kaagar, Rakshas and Ghar Banduk Biryani, in addition to more than 115 short films through independent and digital cinema.^[4][5]

He also wrote the story for Baaplyok, a film centred on a father–son relationship, starring Shende as the father and Kale as the son, with Payal Jadhav and Neeta Shende in supporting roles.^[5][6] For Baaplyok, Kale received Maharashtra State Film Awards for Best Story and Best Supporting Actor.^[3]

• Aranyak (2015)^[4]
• Aushadh (2016)^[4]
• The Field (2018)^[5]