Facts about Girish Karnad

Veteran actor Girish Karnad passed away yesterday morning at the age of 81 years. As a multifaceted personality, he acted in several plays and movies.

Here are some lesser-known facts about Girish Karnad:

• Girish Karnad was born in Maharashtra. He got fame with a Kannada play named Tughlaq. He wrote it at the age of 26 years.
• He achieved his Master of Arts in Philosophy, Political Science and Economics from Oxford University.
• He made debut in both acting as well as screenwriting through a Kannada movie, Samskara in 1970. It was based on a novel by UR Ananthamurthy and directed by Pattabhiram Reddy. The movie won the first President’s Golden Lotus Award for Kannada cinema.
• He is one of the biggest contributors to the Sandalwood cinema.
• He served as the director of the Nehru Centre and as a Minister of Culture from 2000 to 2003 in the Indian High Commission, London.
• University of Southern California, Los Angeles bestowed him with an honorary doctorate in 2011.
• He wrote several plays and content for many movies in the Kannada language. He used to translate his own plays into English.
• He became popular by playing the role of Swami’s father in Malgudi Days TV series.
• Wings of Fire, the autobiography of the APJ Abdul Kalam was turned into an audiobook by Charkha Audiobook. At that time, Girish Karnad had given his voice.
• He received Padma Awards including Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan.
• He was also awarded Jnanapith from Bharatiya Jnanapith for his exceptional contributions towards literature. 
• His popular Bollywood movies include Nishaant, Swami, Pukar, Iqbal, Manthan, Dor, 8 x 10 Tasveer and Aashayein.
• He married Saraswathy Ganapathy and the couple has two children.
• His last movie was Neenillada Male, a Kannada film in 2018.

Image Attribution: Pushkarv / CC BY

Image Reference: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Girish-Karnad.jpg