Girish Karnad, the
seventh and latest Jnanpith award winner from Karnataka, was born in Maharashtra on May
19, 1938. He got his bachelor's degree from the Karnatak University in 1958 and then
proceeded on a fellowship to study at Oxford where he secured his M.A. degree in 1963.
Karnad is internationally known as a playwright, but is also a highly talented film-maker,
a versatile actor, an able cultural administrator, a noted communicator and a person of
wide accomplishments and interests. Based on his serious explorations of folklore,
mythology and history, the subject of his plays reflect the problems and challenges of
contemporary life, and endeavour to forge a link between the past and the present. The
creative intellectual that he is, he obviously views the subjects of his plays from his
own perspective, develops them in the crucible of his own imagination and personal
experiences, and employs them as a medium to communicate his own-independent and
original-feelings, thoughts and interpretations.
Karnad's play Hayavadana won the Central Sangeeth Natak Akademi award and the Kamaladevi
Chattopadhyaya award in 1978. In 1993, his play Nagamandala was premiered in Minneapolis
in the USA. It was later staged, and became widely popular, across the world. His other
famous works (in Kannada) are Yayati, Tughalak, Anjumallige, Hittina Hunja, Taledanda,
Agni mathu Male and Tippuvina Kannasugalu. He has translated his plays from Kannada into
English and Tughalak into German and Hungarian as well.
As for films, Karnad has been director, actor and screenplay writer for many famous
Kannada movies including Samskara, Vamsha Vriksha, Kadu and Kanooru Heggadithi, and
several Hindi movies. Samskara won the best film award, Vamsha Vriksha got national and
state awards and many of his films have won medals and awards. He has also made a number
of documentaries and tele-serials.
Karnad has also served as director of the Film and Television Institute of India and
Chairman of the Central Sangeeth Natak Akademi and the National Academy of Performing
Arts. He was a visiting professor at the University of Chicago in 1987-88 and as an
intellectual, has presented his thought-provoking views and ideas on culture and allied
topics on many national and international forums. He has always taken a leading part in
movements and crusades concerning social and cultural issues of India. |
