Channapatna Ramaswami Simha

C. R. Simha, also known as Channapatna Ramaswamy Simha, was an Indian actor, director, dramatist and playwright. He was born on 16 June 1942 in Channapatna, Kingdom of Mysore, British India. He started his career in Prabhat Kalavidaru, a theatre group based in Bengaluru, and acted in numerous Kannada plays that reached cult status. He started his own theatre group called "Nataranga" in 1972 and directed many successful plays such as Kakana Kote, Thughlaq and Sankranthi. Simha also directed and acted in the Kannada adaptation of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream and Othello. These plays found a widespread presentation across many states in India. Following this, he directed and acted in many English plays written by eminent personalities such as Moliere, Bernard Shaw, Edward Albee and Neil Simon among others. Apart from theatre, Simha acted in more than 150 feature films in Kannada, which include both artistic and commercially viable projects. He also directed about five feature films, with the most prominent being his own film adaptation of Kakana Kote. Simha received many awards in both the cinema and theatre fields. In 2003, he was awarded with the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi Award by the Government of India, recognising his contribution to theatre acting and direction. He was married to Sharada Simha and had a son, Ritwik Simha, who is also an actor. He died of prostate cancer on 28 February 2014, at the age of 71. He is remembered as one of the finest actors and directors of Kannada cinema and theatre.