Girish Raghunath Karnad

Girish Raghunath Karnad (born 19 May 1938) was a contemporary writer, playwright, screenwriter, actor and movie director in Kannada, Hindi and English languages. He died on 10th June, 2019.

Girish Karnad in 2009

On the sets of the 2009 film Life Goes On

Quotes

• Everybody must definitely nod their head in appreciation at the list of books Dr. Bhyrappa has read in order to write not just about Tipu Sultan, but Muhammad Tughlaq, too. He has really worked hard. However, instead of going to such pains, he should have asked me directly, I would have told him: I don’t have an iota of interest in the historical Muhammad Tughlaq. I have no interest as to whether he was good or evil, whether he was pro or anti-Hindu. I wished to write an entertaining play, and in the endeavor, wanted to choose a fairly complex character. Tughlaq’s life provided me that material. I took as much I wanted and used it in the manner I wanted to use. My Tughlaq is not the historical Tughlaq. It is an imaginary character. If I wanted to write history, I would’ve written history instead, and not a play.
  • Sept 2006. Karnad in a reply to S.L. Bhyrappa quoted in Sandeep Balakrishna, Tipu Sultan - The Tyrant of Mysore, p.12

• The next prime minister (Narendra Modi) may be a man who organised the slaughter of more than 3000 Muslims in Gujarat. He is a candidate; he is being touted as the next prime minister.
  • In an inteview about Karnad's views on V.S. Naipaul, 'Do the festival organisers agree with Naipaul? Rediff News.

• I see a legacy of my generation... I am happy to belong to a generation that had a Dharmaveer Bharti, a Mohan Rakesh, a Vijay Tendulkar and I. Together we can claim that we did create a national theatre for modern India.
  • Renaissance Man. India Today. Retrieved on 24 November 2013.

• I've had a good life....I have managed to do all I could wish for --even be a government servant. Now I feel whatever time I have left should be spent doing what I like best -- writing plays.
  • Renaissance Man. India Today. Retrieved on 24 November 2013.

• What a person understands as his or her Purusharthas could very according to his or her background stageand station in life, sex, etc., as well as the nature of the crisis he or she is facing
  • In this, Purushartha means "that which is sought by man; human purpose, aim, or end." Quoted inSahu, Nandini title=The Post-colonial Space: Writing the Self and the Nation (2007). Atlantic Publishers & Dist. pp. 59–. ISBN 978-81-269-0777-9. 

• I have been lucky in having multipronged career. You know how I have been an actor, a publisher, a film maker. But in none of these fields have I felt quite as much at home as play writing.
  • Sahu, Nandini title=The Post-colonial Space: Writing the Self and the Nation (2007). Atlantic Publishers & Dist. ISBN 978-81-269-0777-9. 

• I was excited by the story of Yayati. This exchange of ages between the father and the son, which seemed to be terribly powerful and terribly modern. At the same time I was reading a lot of Sartre and the Existentialist. This consistent harping on responsibility which the Existentialist indulge in suddenly seemed to link up with the story of Yayati.
  • This story of Yayati from the Mahabhrata generated interst in him to become a playwright and he explains this here.Sahu, Nandini title=The Post-colonial Space: Writing the Self and the Nation (2007). Atlantic Publishers & Dist. ISBN 978-81-269-0777-9. 

• The subject that interests most writers is, of course, themselves and it is easy subject to talk about. But you know it is always easier if you are a poet or a novelist because you are used to talking in your voice. You suspend your whole life talking as writer directly to the audience. The problem is being playwright is that everything that you write is for someone else to say.
  • Expressed to R.K.Dhavan, quoted here Sahu, Nandini title=The Post-colonial Space: Writing the Self and the Nation (2007). Atlantic Publishers & Dist. ISBN 978-81-269-0777-9. 

• When people all around us are slaughtered in the name of a temple (and masjid) I hear echoes from those times long past.
  • Said while producing a picture called Tale danda on the subject of relationship of religion to politics.Natesan Sharda Iyer (1 January 2007). Musings on Indian Writing in English: Drama. Sarup & Sons. ISBN 978-81-7625-801-2. 

Quotes about Girish Karnad

• Girish Karnad is the foremost playwright of the contemporary Indian stage. He has given the Indian theatre a richness that could probably be equated only with his talents as an actor-director. His contribution goes beyond theater. He had directed feature films, documentaries and television serials in Kannada, Hindi and English and has played leading roles as an actor in Hindi and Kannada art films, commercial movies and television serials. H has represented India in foreign lands as an emissary of art and culture.
  • R.K. Dhawan quoted in Sahu, Nandini title=The Post-colonial Space: Writing the Self and the Nation (2007). Atlantic Publishers & Dist. ISBN 978-81-269-0777-9. 

• Karnad is regarded as one of the three great writers of the Contemporary Indian Drama, the other two being Vijay Tendulkar and Badal Sircar. His significant plays include Yayati, Tughlaq, Naga-Mandala, Tale-Danda and Hayavadana.
  • Quoted in Shukla, S. & Anu (1 January 2003). Multiple Contexts And Insights. Sarup & Sons. pp. 9–. ISBN 978-81-7625-372-7. 

• If calling Tagore a third rate playwright constitutes freedom of expression, then calling Karnad’s plays as bullshit is also freedom of expression.
  • Kumaran Valaven, quoted in the Kannada newspaper Vijaya Vani and by Sandeep Balakrishna, India Facts, [1]