Facts about Girish Karnad

June 11, 2019 Social Buzz Valli Sarvani

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.