Girish Karnad was an Indian actor, director, playwright, writer, professor etc. He worked mainly in South Indian cinema. He became famous as a playwright in the 1960s. He worked in cinema for more than four decades. In 1998, he received the Jnanpith Award, the highest literary honor given in India.
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Wiki/Biography
Girish Raghunath Karnad was born on 19 May 1938 (age: 81 years at death) in Matheran, Bombay Presidency (now, Maharashtra, India), British India. His mother Krishnabai was a widow before his birth. She was practicing as a nurse in the hospital where she met Dr. Raghunath Karnad. They fell in love but could not marry due to the prevailing prejudice against widow remarriage. However, five years later they got married and Girish was the third of their four children. Initially he received Marathi education. Since childhood, he had great interest in theater and joined ‘Natak Mandalis’ (travelling theater groups). Girish was a fan of ‘Yakshagana’ (a traditional theater form). When he was 14, his family moved to Dharwad, Karnataka, where he was raised with two sisters and a niece. For his higher education, he attended Karnataka Arts College, Dharwad and obtained a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Statistics in 1958.
An early image of Girish Karnad
In 1960, he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and went to England to pursue master’s studies at Oxford University. He received master’s degrees in philosophy, political science and economics. In 1963 he was elected President of the Oxford Union.
Family
Karnad was born to Dr. Raghunath Karnad and Krishnabai Mankikara. His father was a doctor and his mother was a nurse. He had two brothers; Vasant Karnad and Bhalchandra Raghunath Karnad and two sisters. The names of his sisters are not known.
He married Dr. Saraswati Ganapathy and had a son, Raghu Karnad.
Girish Karnad’s wedding photo
Girish Karnad’s wife
Raghu Karnad, son of Girish Karnad
livelihood
In 1963, he returned from England and started working with Oxford University Press in Chennai. In 1970, he resigned from the press and joined the local amateur theater group, ‘The Madras Players’. From 1974 to 1975, he served as the Director of the Film and Television Institute of India. In 1987, he was a visiting professor at the University of Chicago. In 1988, he was also the President of ‘Sangeet Natak Akademi’, the National Academy of Performing Arts. From 2000 to 2003, he served as Director of the Nehru Center and Minister of Culture at the Indian High Commission, London.
Write
Karnad was famous as a playwright. He wrote in Kannada language. His work has been translated into English and some other Indian languages. When the play ‘Mahabharata’ by C. Rajagopalachari, the last Governor-General of India, was published, it indeed made a huge impact on Karnad’s life. In an interview, he said, “I could actually hear the dialogue being spoken in my ears… I was just the writer.” In 1960 he wrote his first play ‘Maa Nishadha’. In 1961, he published his drama book ‘Yayati’, which won the Mysore State Award in 1962. His next play was ‘Tughlaq’ (1964), based on the 14th century Sultan of Delhi, Muhammad bin Tughlaq.
At the age of just 26, he was a promising playwright of the country and his play ‘Tughlaq’ brought him popularity. In 1971, his another play ‘Hayavadana’ was published. It was based on the theme of Thomas Mann’s 1940 novel The Transposed Heads. In 1988, his another play ‘Naga-Mandala’ was published. It won him the Karnataka Sahitya Akademi Award for the most creative work of that year. His other plays are Agni Mattu Male (1995), Odakalu Bimba (2006), Maduwe Album (2006), Flowers (2012) etc.
acting
He made his acting and screenwriting debut with the Kannada film Sanskaar (1970). The film won the first President’s Golden Lotus Award for Kannada cinema. In 1971, he entered the field of direction with the film Vansh Vriksha. The film won him the National Film Award for Best Direction along with BV Karanth, who co-directed the film. Later, he directed several other Kannada and Hindi films, including ‘Godhuli’ (1977) and ‘Utsav’ (1984). He also directed some other films; Nishant (1975), Manthan (1976), Swami (1977), and Pukar (2000). She made her TV debut in 1986 with the TV series ‘Malgudi Days’. He played an important role in the film ‘Ek Tha Tiger’ (2012) and its sequel ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’ (2017).
He provided the voice of former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam in the audiobook of Kalam’s autobiography ‘Wings of Fire’.
controversies
- In 2012, Karnad was invited to the Tata Literary Festival in Mumbai to talk about his life. When he came to speak, he did not say anything about himself, instead, he started attacking Trinidadian-British author and Nobel laureate, VS Naipaul, for his dislike towards Indian Muslims.
- In the same year, he created another controversy by saying that Rabindranath Tagore was a second-rate playwright and his plays were intolerable.
- In November 2015, during the celebrations of the birth anniversary of Tipu Sultan, an 18th-century Muslim ruler, he said that the Bengaluru International Airport should be named after Tipu Sultan instead of Kempe Gowda. After public anger erupted, he apologized the next day.
Awards/Honors
for literature
- Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and Varthur Navya Award (1972)
- Padma Shri (1974)
- Padma Bhushan (1992)
- Kannada Sahitya Parishad Award (1992)
- Sahitya Akademi Award (1994)
- Jnanpith Award (1998)
- Kalidas Samman (1998)
national film awards
- Best Direction: Vansh Vriksha (with B.V. Karanth) (1971)
- Best Feature Film in Kannada: Dynasty Tree (1971)
- Best Feature Film in Kannada: Tabaliyu Ninade Magane (1977)
- Best Screenplay: Bhumika (with Shyam Benegal and Satyadev Dubey) (1978)
- Best Feature Film in Kannada: Ondanondu Kaladalli (1978)
- Best Non-Feature Film: Kanaka Purandara (1989)
- Best Non-Feature Film on Social Issues: The Lamp in the Niche (1990)
- Best Film on Environmental Protection: Cheluvi (1992)
- Best Feature Film in Kannada: Kanuru Heggadathi (1999)
Filmfare Awards South
- Best Director for a Kannada Film: Vansh Vriksha (1972)
- Best Director for a Kannada Film: Kaadu (1974)
- Best Director for a Kannada Film: Ondanondu Kaladalli (1978)
- Best Actor for a Kannada Film: Anand Bhairavi (1983)
filmfare awards hindi
- Best Screenplay Award: Godhuli (with B.V. Karanth) (1980)
Respect
- Honorary Doctorate from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles (2011)
Favourite Things
- Food: Kanda Batata Poha, Misal Pav, Vada-Pav, Aloo Methi, Lachcha Prantha, Sabutdana Khichdi
- Actor: Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna, Govinda, Puneet Raj Kumar, Digant
- Color(s): Grey, Black, Brown, Blue
- Book: ‘Why Survive? ‘Being Old in America’ (Robert Neil Butler)
- Poet: Amoghavarsha, Kappe Arbhatta
Death
Karnad died in Bangalore due to prolonged illness on 10 June 2019 at the age of 81.
fact
- Karnad Saraswat belonged to a Brahmin Konkani family.
- His work as Swami’s father in the TV series ‘Malgudi Days’ (1987) was highly appreciated by the audience in India.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQLYQ0GhBtE
- He first met his wife at a party when he worked at Oxford University Press in Madras and married her at the age of 42.
- In the 2014 general elections, he opposed Narendra Modi for the post of Prime Minister.
- He was a strong critic of religious fundamentalism and Hindutva.
- His hobbies were reading, writing, listening to music, doing yoga etc.
- Here is the interview of Girish Karnad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laL7oWWuLGI
See more: Anjali Tendulkar Wiki
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Categories: Biography
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