Actors - Girish Karnad

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	Actors - Girish Karnad

Girish Karnad (born: May 19, 1938), is a contemporary Indian playwright in the Kannada language, in addition to being a movie actor and director.

Career

Educated at Lincoln and Magdalen colleges in Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar, Karnad was Visiting Professor and Fulbright Scholar in Residence at the University of Chicago (1987-88). His plays were staged in India and abroad to wide acclaim, and Karnad himself began working in the field of theater. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1974, the Padma Bhushan in 1992 and the Jnanpith in 1998. His son Raghu Karnad is a graduate of the Mallya Aditi International School, Bangalore.

Movies

His directorial debut came with the movie Vamsha Vrksha, based on a Kannada novel by S L Bhairappa. The movie went on to win several national and international awards. Karnad also acted in the experimental movie Samskara, based on a Jnanpith award winning novel by U R Ananthamurthy.

Later, Karnad directed several movies in Kannada and Hindi. Some of his famous Kannada movies include Tabbaliyu neenade magane (You have been orphaned, Son), Ondanondu Kaaladalli (Once Upon a Time). Hindi movies directed by him include Utsav (Celebration, based on a Sanskrit play by Sudraka, Mriccha-katikam), and Godhuli.

A recently acclaimed movie by Karnad is Kanooru Heggaditi, based on a novel by Kannada writer Kuvempu.

He has received several awards for his movies, including:

President's Gold Medal for the Best Indian film for Samskara (1970)
National Award for Excellence in Direction for Vamsha Vriksha (shared with B.V. Karanth - 1972)
National Award for the Best Script for Bhumika
(shared with Shyam Benegal, Satyadev Dubey(1978)
Golden Lotus for the Best Non-Feature Film for Kanaka Purandara (1989)

He has also served as the Director of the Film and Television Institute of India (1974-75).

Plays

Karnad is most famous as a playwright; his plays, written in Kannada, have been widely translated into English and all major Indian languages. His plays mainly draw from historical and mythological sources. Some of his famous plays include

Tughlaq (based on the 15th century King Mohammed-bin-Tughlaq)
Hayavadana (based on an 11th century Indian folkstory and Thomas Mann's The Transposed Heads)
Nagamandala (based on a folk tale retold by AK Ramanujan)
Agni mattu Male (The Fire and the Rain) - made into a Hindi movie titled Agnivarsha.
Odakalu Bimba (A Heap of Broken Images), 2005

Awards received for his work in literature and theater include:

Homi Bhabha Fellowship for creative work in folk theatre (1970-72)
Sangeet Natak Academy (National Academy of the Performing Arts) Award for playwriting (1972)
Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award for the Most Creative Work for Nagamandala (1992)
Sahitya Academy Award for Taledanda (1994),
Jnanpith Award (1998).

He has also been the President of the Karnataka Nataka Academy (Karnataka Academy of Theater, 1976-78), the Indian Co-Chairman for the Joint Media Committee of the Indo-U.S. sub-Commission on Education and Culture (1984-93), and Chairman of the Sangeet Natak Academy of Performing Arts (1988-93).

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