B V Karanth
| B. V. Karanth | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Babukodi Venkataramana Karanth 19 September 1929 Babukodi, Manchi, Kingdom of Mysore, British India |
| Died | 1 September 2002 (aged 72) Bangalore, Karnataka, India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Occupation | Composer, film director, screenwriter, actor |
| Spouse(s) | Prema Rao (1958−2002; his death) |
Babukodi Venkataramana Karanth (19 September 1929 – 1 September 2002) was a noted film and theatre personality from India. Throughout his life he was director, actor and musician of modern Indian theatre both in Kannada as well as Hindi, and one of the pioneers of Kannada and Hindi new wave cinema. He was born in Mysore.
He was an alumnus of the National School of Drama (1962) and later, its director. He has directed many successful plays and has directed award-winning works in Kannada cinema. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri.
Born in Manchi, a village near Babukodi in Bantwal taluk of Dakshina Kannada district in 1929, Karanth's passion for theatre started at an early age. His first tryst with theatre was when he was in standard III – he acted in Nanna Gopala, a play directed by P.K. Narayana.
He then ran away from home and joined the legendary Gubbi Veeranna drama company where he worked alongside Rajkumar who also was starting out then as a novice.
Gubbi Veeranna sent Karanth to Banaras to do his Masters in Arts where he also underwent training in Hindustani music under Guru Omkarnath Thakur.
Thereafter, along with his wife, Prema Karanth, Karanth set up "Benaka", one of Bangalore's oldest theatre groups. It is an acronym for Bengalooru Nagara Kalavidaru. Then, Prema took up a teaching job in Delhi and supported Karanth through the National School of Drama. He was to return the compliment after he graduated from the NSD, and eventually became its director.
He later graduated from the National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi, in 1962, then headed by Ebrahim Alkazi. Between 1969 and 1972, he worked as a drama instructor at the Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, New Delhi after which the couple returned to Bangalore. Here Karanth dabbled in some cinema as well as music and was involved with the likes of Girish Karnad and U.R. Ananthamurthy in these ventures.
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