Film Fraternity mourns the demise of veteran actor, filmmaker and playwright Girish Karnad. He succumbed to a prolonged illness at his residence in Vittal Mallya Road, Bengaluru.
Film personalities such as Sonam Kapoor, Siddharth, Gulshan Devaiah, Madhur Bhandarkar and more took to their social media handle and shared condolences messages.
Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar shared, “Deeply saddened by the news of demise of Girsh Karnad ji. He will be remembered for his work as a Theater personality, film actor, and director. My deepest condolences to his family, friends & fans. #OmShanti”
Karnad predominantly worked in South Indian cinema and Bollywood. He rose to prominence with his coming of age of modern Indian playwriting in Kannada. He was conferred the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan, and had won several accolades for direction in Kannada cinema.
Actor Gulshan Devaiah shared, “A playwright, filmmaker, actor, thinker, scholar and literary giant. Goodbye good sir!! And thank you #GirishKarnad 1938-2019”
Actress Sonam Kapoor Ahuja tweeted, “Rest in peace. I loved his work.”
Tamil and Hindi actor Siddharth wrote, “Rest in peace great sir. #GirishKarnad”
Karnad had made his acting as well as screenwriting debut with a 1970 Kannada movie Samskara. The film, based on a novel by UR Ananthamurthy and directed by Pattabhirama Reddy, won the first President’s Golden Lotus Award for Kannada cinema.
Some of his popular Kannada movies include Tabbaliyu Neenade Magane, Ondanondu Kaladalli, Cheluvi, Kaadu and Kanooru Heggaditi.
His Hindi movies include Nishaant, Manthan, Swami and Pukar. He had acted in a number of Nagesh Kukunoor films, starting with Iqbal, in which Karnad played the role of a ruthless cricket coach.
Girish was also part of Salman Khan-starrer Ek Tha Tiger and Tiger Zinda Hai.