The many feathers in Karnad's cap

Bengaluru: He was already a playwright, but Girish Karnad made his acting and screenwriting debut in the Kannada movie, Samskara  (1970), based on a novel by U.R. Ananthamurthy. The film won the first President's Golden Lotus Award for Kannada cinema. He later went to on to act in one of the most popular television soaps of the time, Malgudi Days, in which he played the father of the little boy, Swami, who is central to the series based on an R. K. Narayan book. Karnaad made his directorial debut with Vamsha Vriksha (1971), based on a Kannada  novel by S. L. Bhyrappa  . It won him the National Film Award for Best Director, along with B. V. Karanth, who co-directed the film.

He went on to  direct several other movies both in Kannada  and Hindi including Godhuli (1977) and Utsav (1984). He also  made  a number of documentaries, including one on the Kannada poet,  D. R. Bendre (1972), Kanaka-Purandara (English, 1988), which was based on two medieval Bhakti  poets of Karnataka, Kanaka Dasa  and Purandara Dasa  and The Lamp in the Niche (English, 1989) on Sufism and the Bhakti movement. Here too he bagged several national and international awards.

His Kannada movies include Tabbaliyu Neenade Magane, Ondanondu Kaladalli, Cheluvi and Kaadu  and Kanooru Heggaditi (1999), based on a novel by Kannada writer, Kuvempu.

Some of the Hindi films

Nishaant  (1975), Manthan (1976), Swami  (1977) and Pukar (2000). He acted in a number of Nagesh Kukunoor  films, starting with Iqbal  (2005), in which his role of a ruthless cricket coach won him critical acclaim.  This was followed by Dor 2006), 8 x 10 Tasveer  (2009) and Aashayein  (2010). He played a key role in the movies "Ek Tha Tiger  (2012) and its sequel "Tiger Zinda Hai  (2017) produced by Yash Raj Films.