Mumbai, Oct 31: Acclaimed playwright, actor and film director and thinker Girish Karnad has been named for this year’s Tata Literature Live! Lifetime Achievement Award, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the Indian literary space. The award will be conferred on him at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai on November 19.
According to Harish Bhat, brand custodian of Tata Sons, the award, which was instituted to celebrate outstanding contribution to the Indian literary space, is being given to Karnad this year to commemorate “his active and diverse role in literature and cinema.” Previous recipients of the award include Mahasweta Devi (2011), VS Naipaul (2012), Khushwant Singh (2013), MT Vasudevan Nair (2014), Kiran Nagarkar (2015) and Amitav Ghosh (2016).
The 1938 born Karnad is credited as one of the playwrights who, along with others such as Vijay Tendulkar and Mohan Rakesh, propelled Indian theatre into the modern age. Anil Dharker, founder and director of Literature Live!, says, “His work, that marked the coming-of-age of modern Indian playwriting in the ’60s, has significantly helped shape and enhance the Indian art and literature universe.”
Karnad was awarded the Padma Shri in 1974 and the Padma Bhushan in 1992. Throughout his career, he has drawn deeply from the folk traditions of his native Karnataka as well as history and Sanskrit literature to create works that reverberate with modern social and political concerns. His well-known play, Tughlaq (1964), for instance, used the story of 14th century ruler Muhammad bin-Tughlaq’s ill-conceived plans as an allegory for the follies of Nehruvian socialism.
Other acclaimed plays by Karnad, who won the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1972 and the Jnanpith Award in 1998, include Yayati (1961), Hayavadhana (1971), Naga-Mandala (1988) and Taledanda (1990). Karnad has also had a rich career in both Kannada and Hindi cinema as an actor, director and writer, being involved in projects such as Samskara (1970), Vamsha Vriksha (1971), Nishant (1975), Manthan (1976), Bhumika (1978), Utsav (1984) and Iqbal (2005).
In response to the latest honour, Karnad says that given the nature of a playwright’s work, which involves working in cooperation with a team of other professionals, as well as addressing a large and diverse audience and holding their attention, any recognition of success is an exhilarating experience. “I feel enveloped by the warmth rolling in wave after wave — from across languages, cultures and even from bygone generations — saying to me, ‘well done!’ What more could one want? This is the moment a playwright lives for,” he says.
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