Encompassing 52 diverse characters performed without any stage props, Laxmanrao aims to stage this three-hour one-act play he has written and directed, a record 2001 times before the year 2000, he announced at a press conference here on Monday. He said he took special pride in displaying his Guinness certificate in a city where he had performed almost 600 times.

What began as a 15 minute impromptu act, with the students of the Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad, where he presently heads the dramatics department, as the audience, and a token Rs 11 or Rs 21 as reward, has now won over audiences in India and America, Canada, England, Dubai, Muscat, Australia, Nigeria, with future shows slated in Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar.

Overwhelmed by the popularity of the play,Laxmanrao translated it into Hindi, and Barat Chali Londonko was staged at the first National Theatre Festival in Delhi in April this year, with 26 shows so far.

Proving this record was no easy task; it took six kilos of ticket records, newspaper advertisements, reviews, audio-video cassettes, photographs, and various certificates to convince the Records and Research Services of the Guinness Book of Records that his play had beaten Roy Detroyce's record by 230 shows; the first Marathi play to enter these pages.

``Fiftytwo characters live and breathe in my body, whose voices I have perfected after long nights of riyaaz,'' he says, explaining why he feels no exhaustion or monotony after performing the same play almost 2,000 times. ``From 1979 to 1983 I used to act nine hours a day, with three shows a day.'' Now he performs four or five times a week.

For journalist-turned-teacher-turned artist, it's been a long road to realising the prophecy declared by Bal Gandharva when he saw him performat a Ganesh festival when he was seven. ``You will one day move the world with your talent,'' he had said.

``There is no short-cut to success,'' is the advice Laxmanrao, who has raised about Rs 30 lakh for various charitable organisations with his performances.