44-708: Girish Karnad (19 May 1938 – 10 June 2019) was an Indian actor, film director, Kannada writer, playwright 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
88-688: A Rhodes Scholar (1960–63), earning his Master of Arts degree in philosophy, political science and economics. Karnad was elected the President of the Oxford Union in 1962–63. After working with the Oxford University Press , Chennai for seven years (1963–70), he resigned to take to writing full-time. While in Madras (now known as Chennai) he got involved with local amateur theatre group, The Madras Players . During 1987–88, he
132-448: A Kannada movie, Samskara (1970), based on a novel by U.R. Ananthamurthy and directed by Pattabhirama Reddy. That movie won the first President's Golden Lotus Award for Kannada cinema . In television, he played the role of Swami's father in the TV series Malgudi Days (1986–1987), based on R. K. Narayan 's books, directed by Kannada actor and director Shankar Nag . He also hosted
176-536: A furore among many people. Karnad apologised the following day. While working in Madras for Oxford University Press on his return from England, Karnad met his future wife Saraswathi Ganapathy at a party. They decided to marry but the marriage was only formalised ten years later, when Karnad was 42 years old. Saraswathi was born to a Parsi mother, Nurgesh Mugaseth, and a Kodava Hindu father, Kodandera Ganapathy. The couple had two children. They lived in Bengaluru . He
220-426: A key role in movies " Ek Tha Tiger " (2012) and its sequel " Tiger Zinda Hai " (2017) produced by Yash Raj Films. Karnad has acted in the Kannada gangster movie Aa Dinagalu . He provided the voice of A. P. J. Abdul Kalam , former President of India , in the audiobook of Kalam's autobiography by Charkha Audiobooks, Wings of Fire . He narrated and recorded a collection of folk and mythological stories as 'Karadi
264-552: A mix of British and Indian actors. Shortly after, the Madras Dramatic Society closed down, and bequeathed most of their props and make-up equipment to The Madras Players founding members N. S. Yamuna and Gayathri (Grace) Krishnaswamy. The group members in the early 1960s included Thambi Kadambavanam, Ammu Mathew, Girish Karnad , and Stewart Melluish . In their early days, the group staged British works from Terence Rattigan , Shakespeare , Ibsen , Osborne with
308-403: A novel by Kannada writer Kuvempu . His Hindi movies include Nishaant (1975), Manthan (1976), Swami (1977) and Pukar (2000). He has acted in a number of Nagesh Kukunoor films, starting with Iqbal (2005), where Karnad's role of the ruthless cricket coach got him critical acclaim. This was followed by Dor (2006), 8 x 10 Tasveer (2009) and Aashayein (2010). He played
352-637: A period of efflorescence during the iconic Balgandharva era . As a youngster, he was an ardent admirer of Yakshagana and the theater in his village. His family moved to Dharwad in Karnataka when he was fourteen, where he grew up with his two sisters and a niece. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics and statistics from Karnataka Arts College, Dharwad ( Karnataka University ), in 1958. After graduation, he went to England and studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Magdalen in Oxford as
396-505: A religious controversy about the king. Karnad was a supporter of the Forum for Communal Harmony. Karnad died on 10 June 2019 at Bengaluru at the age of 81 due to multiple organ failure following prolonged illness. "After a discussion with his son, it was made clear to us that his last wish was to not have any floral procession, VVIPs or visits of any dignitaries. Hence, it will be a simple affair." Jnanpith Award The Jnanpith Award
440-572: Is constituted for each of the languages. The language of the most recent recipient's work is not eligible for consideration for the next two years. Each committee consists of three literary critics and scholars of their respective languages. All the nominations are scrutinised by the committee and their recommendations are submitted to the Jnanpith Award Selection Board. The Selection Board consists of between seven and eleven members of "high repute and integrity". Each member
484-546: Is part of the committee for a term of three years which can also be extended further for two more terms. The recommendations of all language advisory committees are evaluated by the board based on complete or partial translations of the selected writings of the proposed writers into Hindi or English. The recipient for a particular year is announced by the Selection Board, which has final authority in selection. The Madras Players The Madras Players are
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#1732798551718528-648: Is the oldest and the highest Indian literary award presented annually by the Bharatiya Jnanpith to an author for their "outstanding contribution towards literature". Instituted in 1961, the award is bestowed only on Indian writers writing in Indian languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India and English, with no posthumous conferral. From 1965 till 1981, the award
572-857: The Sahu Jain family , conceived an idea in May 1961 to start a scheme "commanding national prestige and of international standard" to "select the best book out of the publications in Indian languages". Later in November, Rama Jain, the Founder President of the Bharatiya Jnanpith, invited a few literary experts to discuss various aspects of the scheme. Jain along with Kaka Kalelkar , Harivansh Rai Bachchan , Ramdhari Singh Dinkar , Jainendra Kumar , Jagdish Chandra Mathur , Prabhakar Machwe, Akshaya Kumar Jain, and Lakshmi Chandra Jain presented
616-679: The Bear' for the children's book publisher Karadi Tales (Charkha is also an initiative of Karadi Tales for young adults). National Film Awards Filmfare Awards South Filmfare Awards Hindi Karnataka State Film Awards At the Tata Literary Festival held in Mumbai in 2012, Karnad was invited to speak about "his life in theater" in an hour-long session. During his speech, he lashed out at V. S. Naipaul for his "antipathy towards Indian Muslims". Naipaul had earlier been conferred
660-611: The Kannada poet D. R. Bendre (1972), Kanaka-Purandara (English, 1988) on two medieval Bhakti poets of Karnataka, Kanaka Dasa and Purandara Dasa , and The Lamp in the Niche (English, 1989) on Sufism and the Bhakti movement . Many of his films and documentaries have won several national and international awards. Some of his famous Kannada movies include Tabbaliyu Neenade Magane , Ondanondu Kaladalli , Cheluvi and Kaadu and most recent film Kanooru Heggaditi (1999), based on
704-482: The Lifetime achievement award by the festival's organisers. Karnad also criticized the organizers for having honored Naipaul. The audience, which had gathered to hear Karnad speak, had mixed reactions to the speech. Some, like organizer Anil Dharker , tried ineffectually to steer the speech toward less controversial waters. Others were amused by the episode, and some commented on the research and logic that had gone into
748-455: The Players in this period include comedian Naushir Ratnagar , back-stage artist Mithran Devanesan and voice-artist P. C. Ramakrishna , who has been a member of the group since 1969. The Players' notable theatre productions include adaptations of Vijay Tendulkar's Kanyadaan , Shreekumar Varma 's Midnight Hotel and Girish Karnad 's Hayavadana . The group's longest running play was
792-499: The Prime Minister's post in the 2014 parliament elections . He was one of the 200 writers who put out an open letter against hate politics and for “diverse and equal India” during the 2019 general elections. With a tube in his nose, he wore a placard saying "Me Too Urban Naxal" at the first death anniversary of slain journalist Gauri Lankesh . Karnad claimed that Tipu Sultan was the greatest king Karnataka had in 500 years, on
836-678: The actor Manohar Singh , playing the visionary king who later becomes disillusioned and turns bitter, amidst the historic Purana Qila in Delhi. It was staged in London by the National School of Drama for the Festival of India in 1982. Hayavadana (1971) was based on a theme drawn from The Transposed Heads , a 1940 novella by Thomas Mann , which is originally found in the 11th-century Sanskrit text Kathasaritsagara . Herein he employed
880-497: The celebrations of the 30th anniversary of Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis. The theatre subsequently commissioned him to write the play, Agni Mattu Male (The Fire and the Rain). Though before it came Taledanda (Death by Beheading, 1990) which used the backdrop, the rise of Veerashaivism , a radical protest and reform movement in 12th century Karnataka to bring out current issues. Karnad made his acting as well as screenwriting debut in
924-514: The dialogues being spoken into my ears ... I was just the scribe," said Karnad in a later interview. Yayati was published in 1961, when he was 23 years old. It is based on the story of King Yayati , one of the ancestors of the Pandavas , who was cursed into premature old age by his preceptor, Shukracharya , who was incensed at Yayati's infidelity. Yayati, in turn, asks his sons to sacrifice their youth for him, and one of them agrees. It ridicules
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#1732798551718968-525: The draft was finalised and later presented to Prasad. The first award selection committee meeting was scheduled on 16 March 1963 and Prasad was appointed as its president. However, Prasad died on 28 February 1963 and thus the scheduled meeting was chaired by Kalelkar and Sampurnanand acted as president of the committee. The first Selection Board consisted of Kalelkar, Niharranjan Ray , Karan Singh , R. R. Diwakar , V. Raghavan , B. Gopal Reddy , Harekrushna Mahatab , Rama Jain, and Lakshmi Chandra Jain and
1012-429: The first woman to win the award and was honoured for the 1965 novel Prothom Protishruti ( The First Promise ), the first in a trilogy. The most recent recipients of the award are Sanskrit scholar Rambhadracharya and Urdu writer, Bollywood lyricist Gulzar jointly awarded for the year of 2023. The Bharatiya Jnanpith , a research and cultural institute founded in 1944 by industrialist Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain of
1056-638: The folk theatre form of Yakshagana . A German version of the play was directed by Vijaya Mehta as part of the repertoire of the Deutsches National Theatre, Weimar . Naga-Mandala (Play with Cobra, 1988) was based on a folk tale related to him by A. K. Ramanujam, brought him the Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award for the Most Creative Work of 1989. It was directed by J. Garland Wright, as part of
1100-560: The help of directors like John Shepherd and Peter Coe and with constant support from the British Council. In the 1970s, they turned their attention to the newly available English translations of Indian-language plays, a venture which was well received by the audiences. Noted Kannada director Girish Karnad translated his plays to English for the group, who also performed translated works of playwrights like Mohan Rakesh , Vijay Tendulkar and Gurucharan Das . Noted performers for
1144-581: The initial draft to the then President of India Rajendra Prasad who had shown interest in the scheme's implementation. The idea was also discussed at the 1962 annual sessions of the All India Gujarati Sahitya Parishad and the Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad. On 2 April 1962, around 300 writers of various Indian languages were invited to Delhi for the two sessions conducted by Dharamvir Bharati in which
1188-541: The ironies of life through characters in Mahabharata . The play in Hindi was adapted by Satyadev Dubey and Amrish Puri was lead actor for the play. It became an instant success, immediately translated and staged in several other Indian languages. Karnad found a new approach of drawing historical and mythological sources to tackle contemporary themes and existentialist crisis of modern man through characters locked in psychological and philosophical conflicts. His next
1232-642: The oldest English -language theatre group in Chennai , India. The Madras Players have staged over 240 theatre productions for more than 50 years. The Madras Players has its origins from Kilpauk General/Mental Hospital in the Psychiatric Ward, a theatre group exclusively for the mentally disabled, that mounted comedies and bedroom farces in the early 1950s. In 1955, the British Council first hosted Robert Newton 's Othello which featured
1276-539: The performing arts (1988–93). He served as director of the Nehru Centre and as Minister of Culture, in the Indian High Commission, London (2000–2003). Karnad is known as a playwright. His plays, written in Kannada , have been translated into English (mostly translated by himself) and some Indian languages. Kannada is his language of choice. When Karnad started writing plays, Kannada literature
1320-831: The preceding twenty years, excluding the year for which the award was to be given and the cash prize was increased to ₹ 1.5 lakh (equivalent to ₹ 31 lakh or US$ 37,000 in 2023) from 1981. As of 2015 , the cash prize has been revised to ₹ 11 lakh (equivalent to ₹ 17 lakh or US$ 20,000 in 2023) and out of twenty-three eligible languages the award has been presented for works in sixteen languages: Hindi (eleven), Kannada (eight), Bengali and Malayalam (six each), Urdu (five) Gujarati , Marathi , Odia (four each), Assamese and Telugu (three each), Punjabi , Tamil , Konkani and Sanskrit (two each), English, Kashmiri and (one each). The award has been conferred upon fifty-eight writers including eight women authors. In 1976, Bengali novelist Ashapoorna Devi became
1364-458: The science magazine Turning Point on Doordarshan, in the early 1990s. He made his directorial debut with Vamsha Vriksha (1971), based on a Kannada novel by S. L. Bhyrappa . It won him National Film Award for Best Direction along with B. V. Karanth , who co-directed the film. Later, Karnad directed several movies in Kannada and Hindi , including Godhuli (1977) and Utsav (1984). Karnad has made number of documentaries, like one on
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1408-502: The speech (unfortunately overshadowed by its 'scandalous' nature). Just a few weeks after this, Karnad again created controversy by claiming that Rabindranath Tagore , who wrote India's national anthem, was a great poet but a second-rate playwright. In November 2015, during celebrations marking the anniversary of 18th-century Muslim ruler Tipu Sultan 's birth, Karnad stated that Bangalore International Airport should have been named after Tipu Sultan instead of Kempe Gowda . This created
1452-517: The wedding was held privately, and under the dispensation of the Arya Samaj , a reform organization that condones widow remarriage. Girish was the third of the four children born thereafter. Karnad's initial schooling was in Marathi. Later, after his father was transferred to Sirsi in the Kannada -speaking regions of Bombay Presidency , Karnad was exposed to travelling theatre groups and nataka mandalis (theatre troupes), which were experiencing
1496-576: Was Tughlaq (1964), about a rashly idealist 14th-century Sultan of Delhi , Muhammad bin Tughluq , and allegory on the Nehruvian era which started with ambitious idealism and ended up in disillusionment. This established Karnad, now 26 years old, as a promising playwright in the country . It was staged by the National School of Drama Repertory under the direction of Ebrahim Alkazi , with
1540-574: Was a recipient of the 1998 Jnanpith Award , the highest literary honour conferred in India. For four decades Karnad composed plays, often using history and mythology to tackle contemporary issues. He translated his plays into English and received acclaim. His plays have been translated into some Indian languages and directed by directors like Ebrahim Alkazi , B. V. Karanth , Alyque Padamsee , Prasanna , Arvind Gaur , Satyadev Dubey , Vijaya Mehta , Shyamanand Jalan , Amal Allanaa and Zafer Mohiuddin. He
1584-556: Was active in the world of Indian cinema working as an actor, director and screenwriter, in Hindi and Kannada cinema, and has earned awards. He was conferred Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan by the Government of India and won four Filmfare Awards , of which three are Filmfare Award for Best Director – Kannada and the fourth a Filmfare Best Screenplay Award. He was a presenter for a weekly science magazine programme called "Turning Point" that aired on Doordarshan in 1991. Girish Karnad
1628-724: Was at the University of Chicago as visiting professor and Fulbright playwright-in-residence. During his tenure at Chicago Nagamandala had its world premiere at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis based on Karnad's English translation of the Kannada original. He served as director of the Film and Television Institute of India (1974–1975) and chairman of the Sangeet Natak Akademi , the national academy of
1672-628: Was born in Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin family of Matheran , in present-day Maharashtra , in 1938. His mother Krishnabai (née Mankikar) was a young widow with a son who belonged to a poor family. Since it was necessary for her to earn a living, she began working as a nurse and cook (general housekeeper) for the bedridden wife of a certain Raghunath Karnad, a doctor in the Bombay Medical Services . He
1716-641: Was extremely fluent and well-versed in Marathi , Kannada , Konkani , Hindi , and English. He was a proponent of multiculturalism and freedom of expression. He was a critic of religious fundamentalism . He had publicly condemned the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992 and later spoke against the attempts to create controversy about the Idgah Maidan in Hubli . He had opposed RSS , BJP and other organizations on several occasions. He opposed Narendra Modi for
1760-463: Was from the Konkani speaking Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin community. Some five years later, and while the first wife was still alive, Krishnabai and Raghunath Karnad were married in a private ceremony. The marriage was controversial not because of bigamy (it was legal until 1956 for a Hindu man to have more than one wife) but because of the prevailing social prejudice against widow remarriage. Therefore,
1804-575: Was given to the authors for their "most outstanding work" and consisted of a citation plaque, a cash prize and a bronze replica of Saraswati , the Hindu goddess of knowledge and wisdom. The first recipient of the award was the Malayalam writer G. Sankara Kurup who received the award in 1965 for his collection of poems, Odakkuzhal ( The Bamboo Flute ), published in 1950. The rules were revised in subsequent years to consider only works published during
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1848-450: Was headed by Sampurnanand. Works that were published between 1921 and 1951 were considered for the first award. The nine language committees that were formed were to submit to the board nominations along with translations of the work into Hindi or English. The final round had four authors; Kazi Nazrul Islam (Bengali), D. V. Gundappa (Kannada), Viswanatha Satyanarayana (Telugu), and G. Sankara Kurup (Malayalam). On 19 November 1966, Kurup
1892-579: Was highly influenced by the renaissance in Western literature . Writers would choose a subject that looked entirely alien to manifestation of native soil. C. Rajagopalachari 's version of the Mahabharata published in 1951, left a deep impact on him and soon, sometime in the mid-1950s, one day he experienced a rush of dialogues by characters from the Mahabharata in Kannada. "I could actually hear
1936-572: Was presented with the citation, statue of Saraswati , and a cheque for prize of ₹ 1 lakh (equivalent to ₹ 60 lakh or US$ 72,000 in 2023) at a ceremony held at Vigyan Bhavan , Delhi. In his acceptance speech, Kurup appreciated the concept of the new award and thanked it for bringing "integration of the diverse people of this land on a spiritual plane". The nominations for the award are received from various literary experts, teachers, critics, universities, and numerous literary and language associations. Every three years, an advisory committee
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