Girish Karnad, veteran actor, director and playwright, passes away aged 81 at Bengaluru residence

Veteran actor, director and playwright Girish Karnad has passed away aged 81 at his Laveli Road residence in Bengaluru after prolonged illness. He breathed his last at 8 am on Monday. ANI tweeted the news of Girish Karnad’s death

Girish Karnad, veteran actor and playwright, and Jnanpith awardee, passed away this morning. More details awaited pic.twitter.com/YiQT8kCEqD

— ANI (@ANI) June 10, 2019

Karnad was a pioneer in modern Indian play writing in the Kannada industry. Also a Padma Bhusan recipient, he made his screenwriting debut back in 1970 Kannada film Samskara. He gained nationwide popularity in 1986 through his role of Swami’s father in TV show Malgudi Days, based on RK Narayan’s memorable books. [caption id=“attachment_4185859” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Girish Karnad. Image from Twitter/@BagriFoundation[/caption] He won the National Award for Best Direction for 1971 Kannada film Vamsha Vriksha. In the 1970s, he served as one of the flag-bearers of India’s parallel cinema movement when he starred in films like Nishant, Manthan and Swami. Recently, his most popular appearance in Bollywood has been the role of RAW chief Dr Shenoy in Kabir Khan’s Ek Tha Tiger and Ali Abbas Zafar’s Tiger Zinda Hai, that starred Salman Khan in the role of an Indian spy. Girish is survived by his wife Saraswathi, son Raghu Karnad, a journalist and writer and daughter Radha, a doctor based in Kenya.