Girish Karnad was an Indian actor, film director, Kannada writer, playwright and a Jnanpith awardee, who predominantly worked in Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Marathi films. His rise as a playwright in the 1960s marked the coming of age of modern Indian playwriting in Kannada, just as Badal Sarkar did in Bengali, Vijay Tendulkar in Marathi, and Mohan Rakesh in Hindi. He was a recipient of the 1998 Jnanpith Award, the highest literary honour conferred in India.
Udupi Rajagopalacharya Ananthamurthy was an Indian contemporary writer and critic in the Kannada language. He was born in Thirtahalli Taluk and is considered one of the pioneers of the Navya movement. In 1994, he became the sixth Kannada writer to be honored with the Jnanpith Award, the highest literary honour conferred in India. In 1998, he received the Padma Bhushan award from the Government of India. He was the vice-chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi University in Kerala during the late 1980s. He was one of the finalists of Man Booker International Prize for the year 2013. He remained a fervent critic of nationalistic political parties until his death from kidney failure and cardiac arrest on 22 August 2014.
Kota Shivaram Karanth, also abbreviated as K. Shivaram Karanth, was an Indian polymath, who was a novelist in Kannada language, playwright and an ecological conservationist. Ramachandra Guha called him the "Rabindranath Tagore of Modern India, who has been one of the finest novelists-activists since independence". He was the third writer to be decorated with the Jnanpith Award for Kannada, the highest literary honor conferred in India. His son Ullas is an ecological conservationist.
Babukodi Venkataramana Karanth widely known as B. V. Karanth was an Indian film director, playwright, actor, screenwriter, composer, and dramatist known for his works in the Kannada theatre, Kannada cinema, and Hindi cinema. One of the pioneers of the Parallel Cinema, Karanth was an alumnus of the National School of Drama (1962) and later, its Director. He received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1976), six National Film Awards, and the civilian honor Padma Shri for his contributions towards the field of art.
Kuppali Puttappa Poornachandra Tejaswi was a prominent Indian writer and novelist in Kannada. He also worked as a photographer, publisher, painter, naturalist, and environmentalist. He made a great impression in the Navya ("new") period of Kannada literature and inaugurated the Bandaaya Saahitya genre of protest literature with his short-story collection Abachoorina Post Offisu. He is the son of noted Kannada poet Kuvempu.
Panchakshari Hiremath is a writer and poet, short story writer, essayist, critic, translator, orator, editor and freedom fighter who writes in Kannada, Urdu and Hindi. In 2005, he won the Sahitya Akademi Prize for Translation.
Ambale Ramakrishna Krishnashastry (1890–1968) was an Indian writer, researcher and translator in the Kannada language. Krishnashastry has remained popular four decades after his death through his work Vachana Bharata, and his narration of the Hindu epic Mahabharata in the Kannada.
M. Chidananda Murthy was a Kannada writer, researcher and historian. He was a well-known scholar in Karnataka specializing in the history of Kannada language and ancient Karnataka. He was also known for his campaign to conserve the monuments Hampi and to secure classical language status to Kannada Language. Murthy also articulated that uniform civil code and an anti-conversion law must be enacted by the Government in India.
Chandrashekhara Basavanneppa Kambara is a prominent Indian poet, playwright, folklorist, film director in Kannada language and the founder-vice-chancellor of Kannada University in Hampi also president of the Sahitya Akademi, country's premier literary institution, after Vinayak Krishna Gokak (1983) and U.R. Ananthamurthy (1993). He is known for effective adaptation of the North Karnataka dialect of the Kannada language in his plays, and poems, in a similar style as in the works of D.R. Bendre.
Parva (Epoch) is a novel written by S. L. Bhyrappa in the Kannada language. It is a retelling of the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata, narrated through the personal reflections of the principal characters. The novel is widely acclaimed as a modern classic. Parva is among Bhyrappa's most widely debated and popular works and is considered by many to be his greatest.
Kirtinath Kurtakoti was a Kannada writer and critic who won among other awards, the Central Sahitya Akademi honour of India. Apart from Kannada, he was well-versed in other languages including Hindi and Sanskrit.
Aavarana is a 2007 Kannada novel by novelist S. L. Bhyrappa. Aavarana means enveloping or covering something. This novel deals with the historical character Timurid Emperor Aurangazeb. Aavarana was sold out even before its release in February 2007. The novel went on to create a record in the Indian literary world by witnessing 10 reprints within five months of its release.
Tabbaliyu Neenade Magane or Godhuli is a 1977 Indian drama film co-directed by Girish Karnad and B. V. Karanth, starring Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Maanu, Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah. It is based on the Kannada novel Tabbaliyu Neenade Magane, written by S. L. Byrappa as an allegory for nation-building and the clash of modernity with tradition in rural India. It portrays the story of a modern agriculturist who returns from US after studying agriculture and brings his American wife to the village. The film won the Filmfare for ‘Best Film’ (Kannada) and Maanu won ‘Best Actor’ (Kannada) at the 25th Filmfare Awards South (1978). The film was made in Hindi and Kannada versions: Godhuli.
Sumathendra Raghavendra Nadig was an Indian professor and writer in Kannada. Nadig came upon the literary scene as a prominent modern poet in the 1960s. He was a close associate of Gopalakrishna Adiga, the leader of the modernist movement.
Dr. H. R. Vishwasa is a Sanskrit scholar residing in Mangalore, India. He won a Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize in 2010 for translating S. L. Bhyrappa's Kannada novel Aavarana into Sanskrit.
Devanoora Mahadeva is an Indian writer who writes in Kannada language. The Government of India conferred upon him the Padma Shri award, the fourth highest civilian award.
Tantu is a 1993 Kannada novel by novelist S.L. Bhyrappa. Tantu means relations or links between human emotions. This book was translated into English in the year 2010 by Niyogi Books.
Tabbaliyu Neenade Magane(meaning: You've become orphan, son) is a novel written by novelist S.L. Bhyrappa. This book is about a conflict of a culture with modern views of an educated person in a village of India. The author introduced the characters and developed them throughout the book, representing different views and fighting for moral truth and scientific truths. This book is suitable for people who want to know about village life and background of the cow as a God in India.
Naayi Neralu(meaning: Shadow of the Dog) is a novel written by S.L. Bhyrappa, which was first published on 1968. As of May 2018, it had 17 reprints and has been translated into Hindi and Gujarati languages. Based on the novel, a movie Naayi Neralu, in Kannada language was released in 2006, directed by Girish Kasaravalli.
Guttigeri Manappa, known mononymously as Maanu, was an Indian actor, television director and author. He was most noted for his work in Kannada cinema. For his performance in Tabbaliyu Neenade Magane (1977), he received the Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Kannada at the 25th Filmfare Awards South.
