Girish Karnad Biography: Early Life, Education, Age, Family & Career

Written by Rayden Sam Posted on 2024-02-13

Girish Karnad was born on 19 May 1938 and died on 10 June 2019. He was a famous Indian actor, film director, Kannada writer, playwright, and Jnanpith Award, winner.

Girish Karnad Introduction: Girish Karnad was born in 1938 in the Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin family of Matheran in present-day Maharashtra. His mother Krishnabai (née Mankikar) was a young widow with a son from a poor family. Since he needed to earn a living, he started working as a nurse and cook (general housekeeper) for the bedridden wife of Doctor Raghunath Karnad in Bombay Medical Services. He belonged to the Konkani-speaking Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin community.

Girish karnad information in kannada

He worked predominantly in South Indian cinema and Bollywood. Girish Karnad in Kannada’s rise as a playwright in the 1960s marked the era of modern Indian playwriting, as in Bengali by Badal Sarkar, Vijay Tendulkar in Marathi, and Mohan Rakesh in Hindi.

Girish Karnad Early life and education

He earned a 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, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar (1960-). 63), earned Master of Arts degrees in philosophy, political science, and economics. Karnad was elected president of the Oxford Union in 1962–63.

Girish Karnad Career

After working with Oxford University Press, Chennai for seven years (1963–70), Girish Karnad resigned to write full-time. While in Madras (now known as Chennai), he joined The Madras Players, a local amateur theater group.

During 1987–88, Girish Karnad was a visiting professor and Fulbright playwright-in-residence at the University of Chicago. The premiere took place.

He served as the director of the Indian Film and Television Institute (1974–1975) and president of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, the National Academy of Performing Arts (1988–93). He served as the Director of the Nehru Center and Minister of Culture at the Indian High Commission, London (2000–2003).

Girish Karnad Awards

He was awarded the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan by the Government of India and won four Filmfare Awards, three of which are the Filmfare Award for Best Director – Kannada and the fourth the Filmfare Best Screenplay Award. He was the presenter of a weekly science magazine program called “Turning Point” to be broadcast on Doordarshan in 1991.

Girish Karnad was the recipient of the 1998 Jnanpith Award, the highest literary honor in India. For four decades, Karnad composed Girish and plays, often using history and mythology to deal with contemporary issues.

Girish karnad plays have been translated into a few Indian languages and directed by directors such as Ibrahim Alkazi, B V Karanth, Alik Padamsee, Prasanna, Arvind Gaur, Satyadev Dubey, Vijaya Mehta, Shyamanand Jalan, Amal Allana, and Zafar Mohiuddin.