Veteran actor, playwright Girish Karnad passes away

By Manohar Yadavatti

Bengaluru,10 June(HS): Veteran actor, playwright and filmmaker Girish Karnad passed away this morning at around 6.30 am at his residence here due to multiorgan failure. He was 81 years old and had been ailing for a few months.

He is bereaved by his wife Saraswati, son Raghu and daughter Radha. According to family sources, the funeral will take place at the Baiyappanahalli electric crematorium this afternoon without any religious rituals as per the wishes of the deceased.

The family has also turned down the offer of a state funeral as per the wishes of the late actor and has appealed friends and relatives to be present at the crematorium for final rites.

However, schools and colleges in the state have been declared a holiday for the day and three days mourning has been announced.

Girish Karnad was born on 19 May 1934 at Matheran in Mumbai presidency of the British empire. His father Dr Raghunath Karnad was an allopathic doctor and was serving in Mumbai. He had married Krishnabai, then a widow with a son, and a victim of child marriage.

Dr Raghunath Karnad had ventured to brave the prevailing adverse social atmosphere to tie the nuptial ring to the lady who was then working as a nurse in the hospital where the former was working. Girish was born to this couple as the third son of the couple.

Girish had his primary education at Sirsi of North Canara district, secondary education at Basel Mission High School and college education in Karnataka College, both in Dharwad. He later went to Oxford University for higher education as a Rhodes scholar.

In England, he earned the distinction of becoming the first Asian to become the president of the Debating Club there. After returning from England, he worked for some time in the then Madras and also had a stint with the Chicago varsity as a visiting faculty for a short while.

Along with his innings on the silver screen in multiple languages apart from Kannada and Hindi, he also served in several administrative positions such as chairman of Nehru Center in London, Director of National Films Institute, Pune and chairperson of Central Sangeet Natak Academy, New Delhi.

Yayati, Tughlaq, Hayavadana, Nagamandala, Taledanda, Agni mattu Male, Anjumallige, Hittinahunja, Tippuvina Kanasugulu were some of his prominent literary works among many others.

His acting career spanning more than six decades went on unhindered as he was sought after for roles not only in Kannada and Hindi but in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and many other language films.

Apart from almost all top civilian and cultural awards and an honorary doctorate in the home state, he was also felicitated with national level awards like Padmashree and Padmabhushan. He was also a recipient of the prestigious Jnanapeetha award for literary accomplishments.

‘Tiger Jinda Hai’ was his last Hindi film.