Girish Karnad

Girish Karnad was an Indian filmmaker, playwright, actor, and a Jnanpith awardee, who predominantly worked in Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Marathi films. His rise as a playwright in the 1960s marked the coming of age of modern Indian playwriting in Kannada, just as Badal Sarkar did in Bengali, Vijay Tendulkar in Marathi, and Mohan Rakesh in Hindi. He was a recipient of the 1998 Jnanpith Award, the highest literary honour conferred in India. He also received the Padma Shri, the Padma Bhushan, the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and the Order of Friendship for his contributions to Indian and world cinema and literature. He directed and acted in more than 50 films in various languages, and won several national and international awards, including four Filmfare Awards and four National Film Awards. Some of his notable films include Samskara, Nishant, Manthan, Swami, Utsav, Pukar, Iqbal, and Ek Tha Tiger. He also acted in several television series, such as Malgudi Days, Indradhanush, and Turning Point. He was also a presenter for a weekly science magazine programme called Turning Point that aired on Doordarshan in 1991. He wrote more than 20 plays in Kannada and translated them into English and other languages. His plays were based on history, mythology, folklore, and contemporary issues, and used a range of aesthetic styles and techniques. He also experimented with different forms of theatre, such as Yakshagana, Natak, and Tamasha. His plays were staged by eminent directors like Ebrahim Alkazi, B. V. Karanth, Alyque Padamsee, Prasanna, Arvind Gaur, Satyadev Dubey, Vijaya Mehta, Shyamanand Jalan, Amal Allana, and Zafer Mohiuddin. Some of his notable plays include Yayati, Tughlaq, Hayavadana, Nagamandala, Taledanda, and Agni Mattu Male. He was also active in politics and social activism, and was a vocal critic of religious fundamentalism and communal violence. He was nominated as a member of the Rajya Sabha and served from 1997 to 2003. He died on 10 June 2019 at the age of 81 from multiple organ failure. He was given a state funeral and a three-day state mourning was declared in his honor. He is survived by his wife and two children.