Girish Karnad Dies At 81: PM Narendra Modi, Kamal Haasan And Other Celebs Mourn His Death

He was one of the pioneers to bring Modern Indian Playwriting in Kannada during the 60s. The winner of the Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri awards Mr Girish Karnad marked the end of an era on 10th June 2019. The virtuoso actor-playwright breathed his last in the early hours of this morning at his residence in Vittal Mallya Road, Bengaluru. According to reports, he succumbed to some illness he was fighting for a while now. Known for his versatility in experimenting various interests the legend was an actor, a film director, a Kannada writer, a playwright and a Rhodes university scholar.

Today, let’s take a minute of silence to commemorate the great life of Girish Karnad, the recipient of the highest literary honour given in India, the Jnanpith Award.

When you are done, take a look at all the tweets pouring in for the veteran actor on Twitter. PM Modi too wasn’t able to digest this fact!

Girish Raghunath Karnad, also known as Girish Karnad, made a huge contribution to the state and to the Sandalwood cinema. A humble man, Mr Karnad composed plays for over four decades! The master playwright also translated his own Kannada plays to English! His best plays include Yayati in 1961 followed by Tughlaq in 1964. The first film Mr Karnad acted in was the film Samskara (1970) directed by Pattabhirama Reddy, which got him the President’s Golden Lotus Award for Kannada Cinema. You might also remember him from his debut TV show, Malgudi Days, in which Girish Karnad played the role of Swami’s father for the first eight episodes. Another great accomplishment that he had was being the voice of APJ Abdul Kalam when his autobiography, Wings of Fire, was turned into an audiobook, by the company Charkha Audiobook.

If you were an admirer or fan of this great legend too, send in your condolences to him in the space below.

To know rare facts about him, click here.

Watch Girish Karnad in Ondanondu Kaladalli, streaming only on ZEE5.