Bengaluru: He was already a playwright, but Girish Karnad made his acting and screenwriting debut in the Kannada movie, Samskara (1970), based on a novel by U.R. Ananthamurthy. The film won the first President's Golden Lotus Award for Kannada cinema. He later went to on to act in one of the most popular television soaps of the time, Malgudi Days, in which he played the father of the little boy, Swami, who is central to the series based on an R. K. Narayan book. Karnaad made his directorial debut with Vamsha Vriksha (1971), based on a Kannada novel by S. L. Bhyrappa. It won him the National Film Award for Best Director, along with B. V. Karanth, who co-directed the film.
He went on to direct several other movies both in Kannada and Hindi including Godhuli (1977) and Utsav (1984). He also made a number of documentaries, including one on the Kannada poet, D. R. Bendre (1972), Kanaka-Purandara (English, 1988), which was based on two medieval Bhakti poets of Karnataka, Kanaka Dasa and Purandara Dasa and The Lamp in the Niche (English, 1989) on Sufism and the Bhakti movement. Here too he bagged several national and international awards.
His Kannada movies include Tabbaliyu Neenade Magane, Ondanondu Kaladalli, Cheluvi and Kaadu and Kanooru Heggaditi (1999), based on a novel by Kannada writer, Kuvempu.
